Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister. His numbers are the same as the ones I got through a parliamentary question dealing with capacity issues in each of the years 2020 to 2024. Seventeen million euro in that time had been invested in launching new bus routes in Dublin West, but, as the Minister said, just €1.6 million has been spent on enhancing existing bus services.

That discrepancy tells its own story. The €1.6 million that has been spent on enhancement has been patchy. According to the NTA, nothing was spent on enhancements to existing services in Dublin West in 2023. A year before that, in 2022, spending was a grand total of €97. I would love to know what €97 was spent on. There has been some increase since then. In 2024, €407,000 was invested in enhancing existing bus services in Dublin West. That is a fraction of the nearly €2.9 million spent on new routes. It reflects the reality that people are experiencing. It is just not enough when it comes to the growth and demand in established communities, which is most of Dublin West, and the growth of new communities while we wait for BusConnects.

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