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

I thank the Minister of State for being present to take this matter. As he knows, Citywest, which is in my constituency, was meant to be a planned and phased, mixed and relatively modest residential development area. In fact, an area plan was advised for it just over ten years ago. The decision by the previous government to introduce strategic housing development areas, which essentially ran a coach-and-four through normal planning regulations and protocols, and overrode local area and county development plans, has meant that Citywest has developed rapidly, with great density and height, in the past two or three years. One of the reasons or factors used as a supporting argument by developers applying for planning permission there is that developments are adjacent to the red line Luas. This is used as a reason to provide very little private parking in developments, which has led to a plethora of issues with parking, including people asking residents with driveways if they can rent a space in those driveways. This is well accounted for in local media. There is also the forced parking of cars along national secondary routes because there simply is not adequate provision of parking.

Public transport, therefore, is key and was looked on as a key reason for enabling the granting of dense and high-rise developments with a very transient population in Citywest. In the past number of months, the very vibrant and hard-working Citywest Community Council, led by a very dedicated chair and committee, has raised with Transdev and the National Transport Authority, NTA, the issue of Luas trams that are outbound, particularly from the city, destined for Citywest and Saggart, actually stopping at Belgard in Tallaght and not continuing on to Saggart. This forces passengers to disembark and to wait and queue until the next red line tram bound for Citywest and Saggart comes along. This is not acceptable late at night, never mind at other times during the day, especially for particular cohorts of our society, including students and young women.

The response of Transdev to Citywest residents' association regarding service disruptions was quite interesting. On 3 October, Transdev stated that cancelling of services is the last option exercised when responding to any problem on the line. It also stated that occasionally, due to operational reasons or during times of service disruptions, Saggart trams are redirected to Tallaght to regulate the line and reduce delays. The problem is this is never flagged. Someone can get on a tram in the city or between the city and, for example, Red Cow, get on the red line expecting it will bring him or her to Citywest, but it is not announced that the service to Citywest is cancelled. Sometimes, trams do not show up.

This matter has been raised. The chair of Citywest Community Council was with me in Buswells Hotel when the NTA made a presentation. The council raised this issue with the NTA, which stated it would revert, but despite repeated emails and correspondence the NTA has not reverted. This needs to be addressed. Trams need to go where they say they are going and where timetables say they are going. This situation does not seem to happen on the green line. Will the Minister of State ask Transdev whether there are any plans to extend the length of tram, similar to the green line, which has substantially longer trams than the red line, to help accommodate the increasing number of people who want to use the red line?

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