Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)

I thank the Minister of State. I welcome his comments and knowledge of the area. We are all very proud in Dublin 8 of Inchicore and the historic part of the city that it is. We absolutely welcome the fare reduction, particularly for young people and students. It is excellent, especially if someone was to take three buses within the two-hour period. It is fantastic and we do welcome that. BusConnects is welcome. It will make people's lives much easier and travelling will be more straight forward, etc.

As I referenced earlier, however, smaller details are being missed out in the wider scheme and these are important. I acknowledge the work of former TD Joan Collins on this issue. She is still out every week working so hard on this and I am happy to support her and that group. Every public representative of Dublin South-Central and the Ballyfermot-Drimnagh area is there and we are putting pressure on. When those three bus routes, 13, 68 and 69, were first going to go to just one bus twice every hour, the pressure that the group put on the NTA and public representatives to keep representing them has meant that it is now going to be every 15 minutes. When I met the NTA recently, it said there will be a second route which is going to go pretty much the same way, but it is also going to be more frequent, which is great. The missing link is going to Thomas Street. That is really the difficulty. Not missing out on access to that part of the city is what they are looking for, and the frequency of buses is also a concern.

I thank the Minister of State and the NTA. I hope it will engage with us further, so we are able to make the Inchichore BusConnects situation less difficult for everybody.

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