Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)

I thank the Minister of State for the opportunity to bring forward this matter. It is of deep concern to the people of Inchicore, a number of groups in fact. One of the groups I have been working with is a called Connecting Communities, which has been working on this issue and is looking to have the Minister of State's support. As a resident of that constituency and a community advocate, there is a serious impact from the proposed changes under the BusConnects programme, specifically the rerouting of the 57 bus. There were two buses that used to go from Bluebell and Inchicore, down Tyrconnell Road and turn into Thomas Street. I have raised this in the Dáil before and we are not getting any further with the NTA, so I am asking the Minister of State for his support on this. Some 40% of the people who live in that area do not have a car, so they rely on public transport. The people I am meeting with are a generation of people who live in Bluebell and Inchicore and rely on Thomas Street for their shopping, services, hospital and churches and the social aspects of their lives.

I am sure the Minister of State does not know Inchicore as well I do, given that he is not from Dublin South-Central. However, the bus will go along the Conyngham Road at the side of the Phoenix Park, which is miles away from Thomas Street. That then means those people have no access to it. Carrying your shopping and having to take two buses is not suitable for a young person, a middle-aged person and certainly not an older person. The NTA has said it has consulted with people, but people do not feel consulted with. They do not feel they have been listened to. They are out marching. They were out last weekend and will be out again. Public representatives are sponsoring posters so this community group can demonstrate how difficult this move is for them. We have written to the NTA. We are not getting an answer and I am asking for some intervention. It is not that the group or anybody in Inchicore does not want BusConnects to go ahead because it is great to have a bus service that will be there. Unfortunately, when you are trying to rationalise how a bus service is going to go for the whole of Dublin, bearing in mind that route will go out to Kildare and other commuter areas, what happens is that the small details are lost. This is an example of the small details being lost. Those people who are reliant on an old part of Dublin will be disconnected. I suppose that is why they have called their group Connecting Communities.

The other issue BusConnects has is that it will put pressure on parents who are sending their children to school. There are very few secondary schools in Dublin 8 and there is no Gaelcholáiste or multidenominational school, so parents send their children outside that area. A number of parents contacted me recently with regard to some children taking three buses in the morning to get to a Gaelcholáiste in Rathfarnham and some getting two, depending on where they live in Inchicore. That is an extremely long day for a student in secondary school. The other difficulty with that Inchicore BusConnects issue is that the people coming out of the CIÉ works, which is on an estate in that area, will no longer be able to go left, which cuts them off from going to Ballyfermot and the N4. They will have to take a circuitous route, which adds way more time to their day and is totally illogical. They have also said that the NTA has said it has engaged with this community group, but they do not feel engaged. All of these engagements happened over Covid time, which was quite a difficult time to engage people. People were possibly not as engaged, or they missed it. However, the NTA needs to try harder, and we are asking the Minister of State to intervene and help in any way with regard to Inchicore.

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