Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I do not have the detail on that matter but I will ask the Department to furnish it to the Deputy directly. We will provide additional buses but the key here is the BusConnects project because if we can deliver that, not just in Dublin but also in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford, it will radically improve the service, as well as the conditions and lived experience of the drivers working on the service. That is the most important step and we have to get it right at this time to make our bus system the cornerstone of our public transport system.

I was looking in detail at the Kimmage route the other day, which Deputy Smith and I share in our bordering constituencies. I will take that as an example, although it is one of many I could take along the 16 corridors being built. After consultation with the community, we have ended up with a very different design from the one that was originally proposed. It will be very radical and will take a lot of political courage for us to get this through because it will very much advantage cycling, buses and pedestrians over other modes of transport. That is what we have to do now because the city will not work unless we make a bus system that works. We will provide the buses. A shortage of buses will not be the problem in any instance. The key now is getting the BusConnects project into planning. We hope to get that done in March after this final consultation. If there are changes, the NTA should be open to looking at them but by and large the network proposed and the design solutions it has come up with are the right ones. More than anything else, that will increase bus numbers by making it easier for drivers and passengers to use the buses we have. That is the key measure we need to get right in the next few years.

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