John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I would be very grateful if he could go back to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, to tell him this. I say this particularly in the light of one of the points the Minister of State made regarding what the Government has been doing with fares to encourage people to abandon their cars and use public transport. I refer particularly to young people. One of the comments I did not read out or complete was from a parent who said that we are coming into exam season for these students. They want a public transport system that they can rely on. I read through approximately two thirds of what had been said to me. I told the Minister of State about the petition, which I will pass on to the NTA.

One of the reasons I raised this Topical Issue, and as I said, I am grateful to the Minister of State being here, is because I raised this matter with the NTA, I wrote to the NTA and I have not heard back from the authority. That is my first point. The operator of these buses, as outlined by the NTA is Go Ahead Ireland. Some of the schedules the Minister of State raised are for buses that are due every ten minutes. Clearly, however, the evidence from commuters over the past few days is that has not happened. I am aware that there are pros and cons. I am supportive of many of the aspects of BusConnects. I was very involved in making significant changes in relation to it. The Dublin Commuter Coalition on one of the social media platforms accused me of wanting to scrap the 175 and the 75 replacements.

My petition was really clear, in that I wanted to save their connections on those routes to UCD and IADT specifically. I understand the need for changes, and also that connections are bringing good things. I know, for example, that much of my constituency lies between the red and green Luas lines, and for the first time there will be bus services connecting people from that gap to both of those green lines. That is to be very much welcomed. I know there are other people who have made some very positive comments about some of the aspects of the changes.

However, I am critical of the communications. The Minister knows the metro-style map that is being used. A lot of people find that map really challenging to read, and I think the NTA could look at providing some assistance to people and a bit of education around how to read those maps. They can be quite challenging and complex for people who are not used to them. I thank the Minister of State again for taking the topic.

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