Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)

I wish to raise with the Tánaiste the issue of BusConnects. This morning the National Transport Authority, NTA, and Dublin Bus met with elected representatives in my area and they accepted that the roll out of the F spine has been incredibly poor. They have committed to putting in a new timetable, which would reflect congestion, and to having additional drivers in place compared to the number at the beginning. Would the Tánaiste agree that we have to get better at implementing these BusConnects programmes to instil confidence? This involves having a sufficient number of drivers, picking the right time of year for it to be implemented and including local elected representatives who can often help them balance some of the decisions. For example, today they have confirmed that the No. 23 and No. 24 will now service O'Connell Bridge and the quays. This is a really important change. Working with local elected representatives will, I believe, assist the NTA. It is not about answering every query but they will assist them in balancing the changes that need to be made. We need to be including elected representatives far earlier in the roll out of each BusConnects phase.

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