Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am involved in organising a public meeting in Sallynoggin tonight where I expect large numbers of local residents to come and express their absolute fury and disbelief at a decision of two public bodies, Dublin Bus and the National Transport Authority, NTA. These bodies, which are the Government’s responsibility, have made proposals to slash bus services in the greater Dún Laoghaire area, affecting bus routes Nos. 7, 59, 63, 8, 111 and 45A.

In particular, Sallynoggin will be devastated with the proposal to take the No. 7 out of the area altogether. Killiney Village and Mackintosh Park off Pottery Road are to lose the No. 59 bus service. The frequency of buses to Loughlinstown Park is to be substantially reduced. Blackrock Village will no longer have the No. 7 going through it. Significant numbers of residents in large community areas, particularly the elderly, the young, students and the disabled, are going to suffer severely as a result of these proposals if they are implemented.

I do not want the Government to fob this of, claiming it is the NTA or Dublin Bus’s responsibility. These are bodies owned by the public and of which the Government is in charge. The NTA cannot be an excuse, like the Health Service Executive, for the Government to abdicate its responsibility. It is the Government’s cuts in subsidies to Dublin Bus that are forcing this agenda of privatisation of these services. Will the Government tell Dublin Bus and the NTA to get their hands off our local bus services? We need more, not fewer, buses through these areas.

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