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

I absolutely agree. The Government approved the draft of the new upgraded planning Bill earlier in the week. At the press conference, I was asked if I was supportive. I said I was and I was asked why. One of the reasons is that I can see as Minister for Transport how long it takes us to get projects from conception to being built. The Deputy is right. I would prefer if all those improvements to bus services were here this year but they are likely to be next year and the year after. That is because it takes us roughly ten years to get a bus lane from conception to completion. That is too long for a whole variety of reasons, including insufficient resources, particularly maybe insufficient resources in our planning system, but also because these things are politically difficult. Prioritisation of space so the bus system works quickly is not easy. It takes a lot of political courage.

On the earlier discussion, TU Dublin Blanchardstown is located on the same campus as the IDA business and technology park on the Blanchardstown Road. I would come back to what we were saying earlier about improving the bus services there, working with the IDA to help the campus itself and transport within it. That is another development we should look at, further to the discussions we had with Deputy Ó Cathasaigh earlier. We are absolutely committed to providing a better bus service in Dublin. We can look as well at other options and the likes of the N3, N4 or N11 to improve the bus corridors so that poor Deputy Kenny, in the event of an accident, is not stuck in traffic. He might be able to get the bus up from Leitrim and have a guaranteed arrival time.

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