Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)

There is nothing on which I disagree with Deputy Currie regarding the matters she has raised. As she knows, the NTA has responsibility for the planning and development of public transport infrastructure, including the development of real-time systems. The Deputy made a good point on the app. The rating is quite poor. To be fair to her and other Members, but her in particular, she has raised the matter repeatedly. I know from talking to people who work and live in Dublin that they are concerned about the lack of real-time information. I will ask the NTA to engage with the Deputy directly on the matters she has raised because, to be fair to her, she deserves an answer, as do the travelling public. If there is no reliability, what we are trying to do will fail completely, particularly in respect of engagement with customers.

As the Deputy knows, the NTA has awarded a contract to Trapeze to implement and support national automatic vehicle location for all PSO buses. I will ask it to engage with the Deputy also because it is important that the specialist transport systems company hear from users and public representatives articulating the frustration and views of the travelling public. We are seeing growing demand in public transport, but in tandem with that we need to see the app working because, as the Deputy knows quite well, if confidence in the app is lost, the whole system falls down. I will engage with the Deputy again.

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