Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am an advocate for public transport and improved services and I have been for as long as I have been involved in politics. There is no doubt some of the new services are working well. I can only look at the spine that I can see directly. There is no doubt some of it is working well but some of it is not working well at all. Some of the buses do not connect in terms of timetables. I can see double-decker feeder buses with practically nobody on them from 4:30 a.m. and every half an hour until 11:30 p.m. It looks like there are loads of services but, at the same time, for the past month or six weeks, my office has almost become a complaints department. To be honest, I am fed up with it at this stage. People are saying this is clearly not working and they are getting back in their cars where these services are not working and where services are not direct anymore. The chaos around some of the schools is very obvious. It is very frustrating.

The Minister of State referred to consultation. Thousands of submissions went in from my area but people do not feel they were listened to.

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