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

I fully agree with the Deputy. As I said, that local knowledge helped to inform the significant change that took place between the first and second iterations. That will continue to be needed. Public representatives also have a key role because they represent the people and have similar knowledge of the area. Both councillors and Deputies have a critical role to play. I encourage everyone to take part and make their views known by 25 May.

I have a concern which comes from my experience of the Dublin BusConnects project with which I was involved as a local representative. I had a similar experience. Similar to Cork, the original routes focused too much on lane extensions and creating big corridors rather than building communities. In both instances, the NTA shifted and changed towards much more of a community-orientated approach, which is all to the good. The concern I have is the length of time it has taken since then. Time is required for consultation but we need to be quick thereafter in developing specific traffic data and building routes. The delay, more than anything else, is not serving communities.

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