Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to the Minister of State for taking the debate at this hour of a Thursday evening. This is an issue where choosing the forum in which to raise it is difficult, because it involves a number of State and semi-State bodies. It is hard to ascertain directly through parliamentary questions what role the Minister can have. That is where I have combined two or three efforts into one for this evening.

The first is with regard to the timetabling of the Dublin Bus schedule in south County Dublin, namely, the 44 bus from Enniskerry to the city centre and the 47 bus from Stepaside. These two buses serve a number of schools and are a vital form of transport for school children at both national and secondary level to access their schools. However, due to small changes to the timetabling, the bus either goes too early or too late to get the kids to school on time. It is a very simple issue that all of us deal with in our constituencies every day of the week.

I have engaged with Dublin Bus and its response is that the buses are relatively full as is simply does not cut the mustard. It does not realise that Dublin Bus responsibility is as a public-service provider, as well as a company that has to ensure profits are made or losses are minimised. Therefore, I ask for an intervention to allow small tweaks. We are talking a difference of five to ten minutes to departure time of the second bus in order to allow kids to get to school via bus, get them on public transport, keep them out of the cars and not to force their parents, guardians or grandparents to take the car on the road when there is no need. It is a simple fix.

The second area I will raise is with regard to the Luas. The Luas is a wonderful facility that serves the entirety of my constituency. However, now that we have seen a return to 100% capacity, the vast majority of people returning to work and the vast majority of people having already returned to second and third level education, we see the old problems return in terms of the increase in demand. People are, increasingly, left on the platform or going on a Luas that is beyond crowded. This will only get worse.

The repeated announcements of the Minister for Transport and the previous Minister of new and expanded carriages is only enough to meet the current or, indeed, previous demand. The growing demand being added to by the large-scale construction and provision of housing throughout the south Dublin area, along the Ballyogan Road, along the Glenamuck Road, in Cherrywood and beyond, puts huge pressure on the Luas. What we see is people reluctant to take the risk of having to be left on the platform, having missed one or two carriages. It is a longer wait time, depending on where one gets on. Instead, they revert to the car and therefore, despite the 20% decrease in fares, we are not seeing them maximised.

The third area is very pressing. It looks ahead to the St. Patrick's Day festival to which we all look forward and the four-day weekend. It is the double bank holiday that was much promised. It will be the first real opportunity for many people to get out, socialise and I hope mark the end of the serious aspects of restrictions this pandemic has laid upon us. However, that comes again with pressure on public transport services, not just in south Dublin but throughout the entire city and region.

We already see late night transport squeezed to the maximum. There are not enough taxis on the road. Many drivers, for whatever reason, left the profession. Equally, the Nitelink bus service has only returned. I call for an extension of the Nitelink bus service and, crucially, for the Luas to take up Christmas timetabling with special late-night Luas services running until 3.30 a.m., such as we see in the weekends leading up to Christmas Day and over the new year period.

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