Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

It is good that the Minister is in the Chamber. I have raised transport issues a couple of times when he was not here. I presume some were passed on to him, but I will reiterate a couple.

A while back, I raised the need to have an intercity stop at either Adamstown or Kishoge train station. I know that would cause a five-minute delay but there is a lot of demand in this rapidly growing area to get a train directly from Adamstown. A lot of people will not get a train that involves making a 40-minute trip to get to Heuston. It makes sense. I ask for that to be considered in consultation with the NTA.

I did a major survey, called "Bus Correct", last year. More than 2,500 people responded. I eventually got a meeting with the acting chief executive of the NTA on foot of that. The overall satisfaction rate of 37% from survey participants has to be qualified by the fact that people with a gripe are more likely to give a negative response but, at the same time, it reflects dissatisfaction with buses not turning up and the lack of faith in the service. If we are trying to get people to use the new expanded spine system, we have to have certainty. The survey also highlighted an issue in areas where there were older people with bus passes and wheelchair users. At present, there is only one wheelchair space on a bus. We have to look at that. Changing a bus is not suitable for these cohorts.

We still have to have an early service in the more traditional areas that allows people to get into the city centre. I note the Newcastle direct service was changed by the NTA after there were plans to abolish it, and the Rathcoole service will now be half hourly rather hourly, so the NTA can move. The old 25 route from Adamstown, which was a direct route into the city, needs to be looked at. It is not good enough that the train service in my area has been getting second-hand carriages from the northern route for two years. We need proper carriages.

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