Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking this question at the last minute. I do not think he is responsible for this area but he may well be familiar with it as a Minister of State from the Green Party who should and would, I think, have an interest in developing public transport systems to take cars off the road, to decarbonise our economy and to improve public transport. In general, then, I start by saying I am not opposed to the BusConnects system in principle. If it improves public transport and encourages people to get out of their cars, all the better. The problem we have is with the actual results of the new routes being implemented. This is not the revolution we were promised in bus transport. Unfortunately, I believe we are seeing negative aspects and impacts on passengers and on communities, particularly on vulnerable cohorts within those communities.

In the latest phase of BusConnects in my constituency, in Dublin 10 and Dublin 12, the old 17 and 18 bus routes have been scrapped. The Minister of State may have heard a discussion about this on the radio. They have been replaced with the S2 and the S4 and a new route 74. Like many other phases in the BusConnects plan, these routes are not exactly the same and people accept this. The claim made by the National Transport Authority and BusConnects, however, that these new routes will give people better and wider access to more locations and more frequency really must be challenged.

Some people will now have to transfer to a second or, sometimes, a third bus to make a journey they used to make on one bus, for example, to get from Ballyfermot to St. Louis High School in Rathmines. The 18 bus route used to take people there. The same issue arises with regard to going from parts of Crumlin to Sandymount or a job near Ballsbridge. People now have to make two or three connections. This would be fine if the theory that these buses would be more efficient and plentiful and the transfers would be easy, smooth and timely worked but this is not true. I wish it were true but it is not.

This is not just a teething problem that can be ironed out. Large numbers of people are being stranded and are facing longer delays and longer commutes. For children and elderly people this is particularly difficult. In Dublin 12 and Dublin 10 there is no direct link between Ballyfermot and Rathmines or between Crumlin and Ballyfermot. Schoolchildren, who cannot easily move from their schools, are being affected in particular. Some parents are writing to me in particular about St. Louis in Rathmines because the children have to try to get two buses or a combination of three buses. Whatever journeys they take, the times they have to travel have been dramatically increased under this new routing.

One of the great claims made by Jarrett Walker when he devised the BusConnects plan was that people would be able to access wider parts of the city than ever before. In theory this is true but what about people who need to go to the places they work or regularly travel to for education or other reasons and have been discombobulated by this? I have appealed time and again to the NTA to provide direct links, even on a periodic basis, to compensate the considerable number of people affected.

If we want to make changes in transport for our climate goals and making the city a better place to live through public transport, we cannot leave large numbers of people behind. It is very damaging to the idea that public transport is the alternative and the future for many people. We have seen it happen repeatedly in areas such as Chapelizod. It is a growing village with many more people moving into it but the services have been cut to bits. We are also seeing it happen in places such as Crumlin, Ballyfermot and Drimnagh.

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