Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State. I am reassured that the NTA has said it will monitor frequency because anybody who has seen any of the bus stops or any of the buses being used will see that an increase in frequency is required. I am certain it is going to have to respond because of the level of demand. The difficulty is how long will it take the NTA to take that action.

I know BusConnects is controversial in different areas. I have encountered that in some areas and it involves some compromises at times. There are positive elements to the service, such as two new 24-hour bus routes, additional new services, connections to the Luas and so on. However, it is the basic design of the service that many people were very disappointed with. There is no longer a local connection between west Finglas and south Finglas, with many people living in one area but their children in school in the other. Routes Nos. 23 and 24 no longer serve the north city centre - the O'Connell Street area - so people from the area are now dropped off at George's Street or Merrion Square, which are miles away from the traditional shopping areas that they would have gone to in Henry Street or Mary Street. There is now no bus service operating in the Beneavin Road area, particularly where it interacts with Glasnevin Avenue. The diversion of the former No. 9 bus from a road that has a bus lane onto Ballygall Road East which does not have a bus lane, makes absolutely no sense. Finally, the east Finglas and Glasnevin area now no longer have a connection to places like Na Fianna, Scoil Mobhí and the Glasnevin-Drumcondra area. They are the structural route issues and I can work with the NTA on those, but what we cannot do is roll out a new service and fail to deliver the proposed service or roll out a new service and provide a less frequent or lower capacity service. This is a matter that the NTA will have to address. In asking the Minister of State this question, the NTA will have had to have prepared a response to input into the Department. I hope doing so was a call for action.

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