Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Minister of State was just getting to the good stuff there; I see it in front of me in the statement.

Obviously, we welcome the increased investment in public transport. It is long overdue and it is great to see it. The Minister of State mentioned - and he can come back to me on this in his supplementary response - that the S6 will move to a high-frequency timetable. I would be interested to know when that might happen.

BusConnects has the potential to lead to a much better service, which is why I support it. It is right that our bus services and bus routes are being redesigned for a city that has changed immeasurably since these bus routes were first implemented, in fact following the old tramlines through the city and keeping many of the old route names, such as the 16. However, when we are bringing in new routes and redesigning a whole network, people also need to understand how the new routes will work for them. I know the NTA has said it has briefed public representatives, but people should not need to come to their TDs to have it explained to them how these new bus routes will work or how they will get from A to B again. I encourage the NTA to arrange more meetings in community centres around the city to explain the changes in these routes to people face to face. This may not be as clear when you get a leaflet through the door - if you do get that leaflet through the door, and people have questioned some of that.

The new BusConnects system requires people to change or to move from bus to bus where there may not be a direct route any more and you may be expected to change. That is all premised on a city that does not have any traffic congestion for it to work properly. We can get carried away sometimes worrying about contactless payments and things like that. People just want a reliable service from their buses. Some of that is down to our now having to make decisions to prioritise our public transport on our roads, reallocate our road space and make sure that public transport is prioritised over everything else for the greater good of the community.

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