Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I am pleased to introduce the Dublin Transport Authority (Amendment) Bill 2026 for the consideration of the House. As Deputies will be aware, the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008, as originally enacted, provided for the establishment of the Dublin Transport Authority, DTA, and set out its role and functions to ensure the provision of an integrated transport system in the greater Dublin area, GDA, including the procurement of public transport infrastructure and services.

The Public Transport Regulation Act 2009 expanded the powers of the authority nationally in a number of areas and renamed it as the National Transport Authority, NTA, to reflect its expanded role. A number of the NTA's other powers under the Act were also extended nationally by the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009, the Taxi Regulation Act 2013 and the Public Transport Act 2016.

The Bill I am introducing today is a further amendment to that legislation. The purpose of it is to provide a clear legislative framework to enable the National Transport Authority to undertake the construction of public transport infrastructure projects, such as BusConnects, in the State, as it currently does in the greater Dublin area.

This is in alignment with the national planning framework, the national sustainable mobility policy and the climate action plan which all commit to extend the statutory transport planning remit of the NTA to the metropolitan areas of Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford. The national sustainable mobility policy, which was published in 2022, noted that national planning framework commitment. Action 75 of the policy also commits to extend the statutory transport planning remit of the NTA to the metropolitan areas I mentioned to strengthen the levels of integration between spatial planning and transport planning. The moving together strategy of 2026, which Cabinet approved recently, also notes and reiterates these commitments.

Project Ireland 2040's revised national planning framework published in April 2025, supports ambitious growth targets to enable the four cities of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford to each grow by at least 50% over 2016 levels by 2040. The national development plan review 2025 outlines Ireland’s largest-ever public investment plan to transform infrastructure, housing, transport, energy and public services through to 2035. As committed to in the programme for Government, this national development plan provides extra funding for the improvement of transport networks across the country.

The sectoral plan for transport under the NDP review, which was approved by Government in November 2025 commits €22.3 billion to a diverse range of transport options, including public transport, active travel, roads, maritime and aviation, over the next five years. An additional allocation of €2 billion from the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund will support the development of MetroLink, which will start next August, bringing the total NDP Exchequer investment in transport to €24.3 billion between up to 2030. That is about €1 in every €4 we will be investing between now and the end of the decade. In tandem with this commitment, the appropriate legislation needs to be in place and hence this Bill.

The programme for Government commits to expand bus services in cities and to ensure BusConnects delivers promised benefits for public transport users. BusConnects is a transformative programme of investment in the bus system, with the aim to provide better bus services across five cities. It is the largest investment in the bus system ever and is managed by the NTA. It will connect people and places through an enhanced bus system together with improved cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. It is a key part of the Government's approach to improve public transport, address climate change and reduce congestion in our cities.

Currently for BusConnects Dublin, the NTA uses a provision under section 44 of the DTA Act which enables the NTA to assume responsibility for the delivery of public transport infrastructure where it considers it more convenient, expeditious, effective or economical to do so. However, this legislative provision is currently limited to the greater Dublin area only. A legislative amendment to section 44 is required to the DTA Act to enable the NTA to undertake the construction of public transport projects such as BusConnects and similar projects in the other cities outside the GDA.

I am pleased to say that the first two BusConnects contracts have been signed. Liffey Valley to the city centre is under construction. Ballymun-Finglas to the city centre will enter into construction later this year.

The NTA launched its new design for the Cork metropolitan bus network in June 2022. The new network, part of BusConnects Cork, is intended to transform the public transport network across the Cork metropolitan area. The new network will involve the creation of new bus routes and improved bus frequencies to help transform the public transport network to meet anticipated growth and future demand in the region.

The amendment to section 44 of the Dublin Transport Authority Act in this Bill is timely. Subject to the enactment of the legislation, the NTA intends to submit planning applications to An Coimisiún Pleanála this year in respect of the infrastructure elements of BusConnects Cork.

On 29 October 2025 the Government issued gate 1 approval in line with the infrastructure guidelines, allowing the sustainable transport corridors of the BusConnects Cork programme to enter the planning system.

It is important to note that under section 44(2)(c) of the DTA Act 2008, the NTA is required to "consult with and consider the views of the relevant public transport authority or other statutory body", being local authorities, before providing public transport infrastructure. Again, subject to the enactment of the legislation, the NTA will have to do this before submitting any application to An Coimisiún Pleanála.

The Bill is a technical one. Amending the provisions of section 44(1) of the DTA Act by the substitution of "in the State" for "GDA" and amending the definition of "road authority" in section 2 is needed if BusConnects is to be progressed by the NTA, outside of the greater Dublin area, specifically into the metropolitan areas of Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford in collaboration with the local authorities. This will provide the NTA with the same statutory powers it currently exercises in the greater Dublin area.

The NTA has the capacity and experience in progressing megaprojects having successfully secured planning consents for all 12 of its core bus corridor schemes in Dublin. As I mentioned, two of those have either begun or will enter into construction shortly. This Bill will ensure that the delivery of vital infrastructure is underpinned by a robust and appropriate legislative framework. I commend the Bill to the House.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Before I call on Deputy Daly, I extend a warm welcome to the Japanese ambassador and his officials, who are guests of the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O’Sullivan.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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The ambassador is very welcome. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this legislation but I do so with a clear warning. Expanding the remit of the NTA cannot mean exporting the same mistakes we have seen in Dublin to the rest of the country. BusConnects promised badly needed transformation, better routes, more frequent services and a modern system but in many cases, this is a far cry from what was actually delivered. Like most projects delivered by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, it was marked by delays, spiralling costs and community frustration. Originally envisaged at about €1 billion, costs ballooned to as much as €4.2 billion. Time deadlines slipped, often local communities felt ignored and in some cases people were left facing longer journey times with fewer services and some uncertainty.

The transformation of Ireland’s public transport infrastructure is badly needed. There is no doubt about that, but what occurred during parts of the roll-out of BusConnects does not reflect how to build public confidence in public transport. What happened is part of a wider pattern of announcements without delivery, ambition without execution and spending without control. We have seen massive overruns across project after project. Nearly €500 million has been spent on MetroLink before a shovel has gone into the ground and €50 million was written off in the context of a failed rail IT system. The cost for contactless payments has already spiralled to €269 million. There are 130 electric buses worth over €40 million that have been sitting idle for years because they were purchased before the necessary charging infrastructure was put in place. That is bad planning. The Government has consistently been unable to deliver.

These failures are not just in Dublin; they are felt all over the country. I asked some of our local councillors in rural Ireland about the deficits in public transport infrastructure. I discovered that there are still no bus shelters in Lixnaw or near the old Tralee town council building on Princes Quay. There is still no bus stop on the Bracker O’Regan Road either. There seems to be an inconsistency of delivery across various local authorities. For some reason, it appears that some areas are able to erect bus stops without an awful lot of bureaucracy, but that is not the case in every area.

The OECD agrees that some systems were structurally designed primarily to accommodate cars. A total of 76% of people rely primarily on cars, which is one of the highest rates in the EU. Some 58% of short journeys of less than 2 km are still made by car because there is no viable alternative. The OECD said that Ireland’s transport system is structurally designed to primarily accommodate cars. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have treated public transport as an afterthought. Throughout the country, there are patchy and infrequent services, limited rail connectivity and entire communities effectively cut off from reliable public transport. None of this is a coincidence.

I listened earlier to the debate about the temporary rail platform being constructed in Adare. Nothing permanent is being put in place in Adare in order to expand the rail system on the newly completed track to Foynes.

There have been decades of underinvestment and neglect. Rail accounts for less than 3% of Ireland’s transport infrastructure, far below the European average of 8%. Only 3% of the rail lines are electrified compared with the majority in EU systems, and no high-speed rail infrastructure exists. A total of 77% of lines are single track, limiting frequency and capacity. Despite all of the money spent – including sums of €269 million, €40 million and €50 million - people still cannot get a cup of coffee on the Tralee to Dublin train on the direct line.

While the Government talks about balanced regional development, the reality is that the situation regarding infrastructure has left places in certain areas of the country, including Kerry, at serious disadvantage when it comes to jobs, infrastructure and quality of life. This Bill matters, but it also involves risk. We need more public transport infrastructure, but expanding into Cork, Limerick and Galway must not mean repeating the same errors on a wider scale.

Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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Decades of underinvestment in our transport infrastructure have resulted in this State being a laggard when it comes to public transport. Too many people face delays and a lack of services, especially when it comes to bus and rail. Many areas across the State, particularly in the west of Ireland, simply do not have the infrastructure in place to deal with the level of demand that exists. This Bill will expand the remit of the NTA to allow it to construct public transport infrastructure across the entire State. In order to do this, the NTA must be properly resourced.

On the issue of funding for the NTA, I have raised with the Minister on a number of times the current public transport issues that people in Athenry are facing. Today, I am presenting the Minister with a petition signed by 1,665 people in Athenry to save the 6.50 a.m. train and to fund a bus service for Athenry. People in Athenry are sick and tired of their transport needs being neglected. We have trains that are literally overflowing. It has been two years since we had the cancellation of the bus service. Despite repeated promises, we still do not have a bus service and, to make matters worse, we are now being told we are going to lose the 6.50 a.m. at the end of July due to a lack of funding. It is not good enough. It is not going to be accepted by people in Athenry. The NTA has requested the funding for these services from the Department, and the Minister must provide it. He needs to get the bus service up and running, save the 6.50 a.m. train and listen to the people of Athenry who signed this petition. They want to be able to rely on public transport but they cannot do so at the moment because of this lack of action. I will be sending that petition to the Minister today.

The Bill before us has the aim of expanding the NTA’s remit in providing public transport infrastructure beyond the greater Dublin area. I refer to the Gluas project in this regard. We have been waiting years for an emerging route for this much-needed project. This is critical to address the traffic issues for people commuting in and out of Galway city. At the same time, we see a lack of basic infrastructure, such as shelters at bus stops. If the Government wants to encourage people to use public transport, it must ensure that it gets these basic things right.

While this Bill is welcome, the NTA must be adequately resourced and funded in order to allow it to meet its expanded role. There is a significant amount of work that must be done to address the decades of underinvestment in Ireland’s transport infrastructure. I call on the Minister to step up to the plate and address the deficits that exist.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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I am glad that the Minister is here for this debate. I want to bring to him a message from my constituents in north County Dublin with regard to the BusConnects north coastal project. As the Minister will know - I understand he has engaged with the local group - the 33 bus is the main bus serving the towns of Rush, Lusk, Skerries and Loughshinny. The bus is frequently overcrowded. We have all heard many times about people left standing on the side of the road while the bus goes past because it is a single-decker when it should be a double-decker, or the double-decker is already full. There is a desperate need for a functioning public transport system for north County Dublin. Not everyone lives near the train station. While it is great for those who do, there are people who do not live near the train and are dependent on the bus. The proposals for BusConnects are causing a lot of angst among my constituents because they see that those proposals are not responsive to the needs of the community. In many instances, they represent a backwards step.

We are not just giving out about it, however. A well-thought-out proposal has been made to the NTA. The NTA responded and we have sent a response back to it. My understanding is that the Minister was due to meet with this group in April. I am hopeful that meeting will be reinstated because it wants a chance to show the Minister the work it has put in to ensure that whatever changes are made work. We all want BusConnects to work, but it will not work unless the people who are going to use the service are listened to. These people are not making observations for the sake of it. They have made them and have put forward a well-thought-out proposal because they desperately want it to work. We need it to work. The bus service we depend on in north County Dublin is not sufficient for the needs of the population. BusConnects will only deliver if it is done in consultation with the people who will ultimately use the service.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I am going to keep this local as well. I want to talk about the 13 bus route. It is planned to be replaced with the D3 route under BusConnects. After Watery Lane, the D3 route will now go down the New Nangor Road and up the Long Mile Road towards Cork Street. Clondalkin, and Bawnoges in particular, will now lose a valuable connection to Bluebell, Inchicore, St. James’s Hospital and the Liberties. There is a strong historical, cultural and familial connection between Clondalkin, Inchicore and Bluebell. Many families moved from Inchicore and Bluebell up to Clondalkin over the years. They still go back to visit families and friends on a regular basis. The 13 bus route is vital in this regard.

I also want to put on my St. Patrick’s Athletic FC hat and say that many people who use the 13 bus route go to Inchicore to cheer on St. Pat’s. I use the bus to go to matches. I see the same people on the bus going to and from matches. It is vital that this cultural link is kept in place for people who cheer on St. Pat’s in Richmond Park. There is also the vital link to St. James’s Hospital that has to be taken into consideration, as well as the many people who still travel to the Liberties to socialise and do their shopping.

Another issue with the D3 route is that it will not serve Woodford or the Monastery Road. People living along Woodford and Monastery Road will lose a bus to town and to Clondalkin village. I am asking the NTA to take all these factors into consideration before it makes any decision to replace the 13 bus with the D3.

A particular issue we have in my area relates to the provision of car parking spaces. We have a number of developments in the area that do not have the appropriate number of car parking spaces. I get the idea behind this whereby the Government wants to see people out of cars and onto public transport.

That is all well and good in theory but in practice it is a different story. An infrequent and often unreliable bus service means the car is still a necessity. We have seen tensions rising in the likes of Kilcarbery, Seven Mills, Citywest and Adamstown because of a lack of parking in these new builds. The Government needs to get its act together and provide proper parking and also reliable public transport. Earlier, I raised DART+ South West with the Taoiseach. The Minister relayed to me before that the delay to DART+ South West is because of an interconnection with another project. My understanding is it is lack of money going to the NTA. Will the Minister confirm that?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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It is not. I answered the Deputy in a parliamentary question recently.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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I am asking again. I have had more information since.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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That is not the case.

Ann Graves (Dublin Fingal East, Sinn Fein)
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Public transport is vital for families and communities. A decent, reliable and sustainable transport system connects people with each other, work, education and recreation. The Minister will know that Fingal east faces systematic and long-standing deficits in public transport. The lack of infrastructure is now constraining economic growth and worsening climate outcomes and residential development. This has led to a dependency on car use. The OECD concluded that Ireland's transport system is structurally designed to accommodate cars. This is down to consecutive governments not prioritising public transport. Some 76% of people rely on cars. It is one of the highest rates in the EU. This has been the story in Fingal east for many years - huge residential developments with no proper infrastructure, schools, healthcare or transport and no building of communities. Some 58% of short journeys are still made by car. This is a major issue in our area where transport is not factored into planning. There are huge housing developments with no reliable or accessible transport so estates in the Minister's constituency in Knocksedan and Kinsealy are left without footpaths much less public transport. This has to be central to any future developments in Fingal east. When I first moved to Swords the MetroLink was soon to follow. It was a selling point for me in buying my home but 35 years later, almost €500 million being spent and basically nothing has happened. It is yet another staggering failure of public spending oversight by Government. The current works on the R132 to facilitate delivery of MetroLink have caused chaos with traffic coming in and out of Swords at a standstill. It is having a huge impact on commuters. Carers are finding it impossible to get to vulnerable clients, all caused by the works on the R132 and other mismanaged works being done at the same time. There is no management in place. We need MetroLink and I support MetroLink but it has to be delivered in a planned, connected and cost-effective way. The Minister recently promised that MetroLink would not become a children's hospital mark 2, yet €103 million has been spent in the first few months of this year alone with predicted costs skyrocketing from €2.5 billion to €15.8 billion, all out of the public purse. We need a radical shift in transport policy. We need proper planning for transport to meet the needs of our growing population. I welcome the Bill and I hope it addresses the issues I have raised.

Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The Labour Party welcomes this Bill. A genuine success story of the previous Government was the expansion of public transport services outside of Dublin, the Local Link network in particular. It is important we build upon that progress. This Bill is largely technical but it is important in enabling us to do so. I acknowledge the progress being made but too many people are still forced to rely on their cars to get around because of inadequate public transport options in particular outside the capital. There is a real cost to that from a climate and emissions perspective but also as we have seen recently in terms of our dependence on fossil fuels, the financial impact of the skyrocketing petrol and diesel prices and the huge impact on people's quality of life that comes from sitting for hours every day on congested motorways. It is important we give people other options - cheaper, more sustainable and frankly more enjoyable, more efficient and more productive options to get around. The best way to protect people from the high cost of petrol and diesel is by reducing their dependence on private cars and making public transport a viable alternative for them. That is one reason we in the Labour Party proposed a free public transport pilot for the duration of the present fossil fuel crisis. Our public transport networks need massive upgrades and expansions to build on the good work of the previous Government.

My colleagues, Deputies Sheehan, Nash and Eoghan Kenny, will touch on the particulars of their own areas. I hope when BusConnects networks are rolled out in other cities that lessons are learned from our experience in Dublin. It has not exactly been a smooth a smooth ride so far. The roll-out is delayed in places currently due to the Department of Transport holding back funding. The scattered roll-out of the various spines has not helped public buy-in. So many parts of the new network are still missing that what we have at present is just a patchwork of routes that do not always make sense on their own. These new routes are being commenced without the reallocation of road space needed for bus lanes, bus corridors and bus gates which means buses are getting stuck in ever more congestion, journey times are increasing for many people and the core concept of BusConnects, that you hop on and hop off buses in a timely manner to traverse the city, is just not working out yet in reality. I believe it can be done but the slow roll-out and persistent delays undermine public confidence in the project and, indeed, my own confidence. The Department of Transport needs to put its money where its mouth is.

MetroLink also urgently needs to be developed. I call again on the Government to honour its commitment in the programme for Government to conduct a new feasibility study on extending the MetroLink out to Dublin south west. In many ways, what BusConnects is trying to achieve is an underground model where people can connect to different lines but just above ground. That model crucially means that buses are given priority on our roads. We hear from the NTA and service operators all the time that congestion is the number one issue affecting reliability for buses. I welcome the work under way putting in new bus lanes and other measures I mentioned but perhaps the cart was put before the horse in rolling out a lot of the new routes before the necessary infrastructure was in place.

I see this most obviously with the new F1 route in my constituency, Dublin South-West. I have raised this with the Minister previously and with the NTA. The F1 replaced the 49 bus. It takes a slightly different route down residential roads with no priority bus lanes so it gets stuck in morning and evening traffic. The consequence is a journey into the city centre which previously might have taken 45 minutes during peak hours can now take around one hour and 15 minutes. That has a significant impact on commuters from Tallaght, Firhouse and Knocklyon who rely on the bus to get to work. When I raised this with the Minister previously, he pointed to the Kimmage corridor as a solution. That corridor has planning permission but it will be a few years before it is in operation. In any case, the environmental impact assessment says the corridor will save around seven minutes on the inbound journey in the mornings and three minutes in the evenings. Without further intervention, none of us can really argue that this new route represents an improvement for my constituents. The new route also cuts off direct public transport links with Firhouse, Templeogue and Terenure villages. My constituents do not benefit from the high frequency element because that begins and ends in Kimmage. The fact that it is a cross-city route is causing issues too with the bus frequently packed and standing room only within a couple of stops in the city centre. Deputy Sherlock tells me her constituents in Dublin Central are suffering from similar issues with this new route.

I cannot understate the strength of feeling towards the changes in this new route in much of my area. I hosted a packed and impassioned public meeting on this back in March. We have a petition to reinstate the old 49 route to run alongside the F1 to restore these vital community links and improve journey times to the city centre. We have seen really good support for that. I would appreciate if the Minister and the NTA could engage with us further on this. The demand is there.

I want to raise an issue that is seemingly becoming more and more common, which is a bit of a scandal - buses skipping stops along particular routes and the reasons this is happening. A number of people have gotten in touch with me about this over the past few months, including someone who used to work for Dublin Bus and has asked drivers about this. It would seem that when buses run behind schedule, central command instructs drivers to skip stops to get back on time and avoid paying penalties, regardless of whether anyone is waiting at the stop or not. That is egregious. I would appreciate if the Minister would respond specifically in relation to this. We all want buses to turn up on time but I think we would also agree that a bus that shows up slightly late is better than one that does not show up at all. People tell me they are frequently left stranded by buses driving past them and ignoring them at bus stops as they wait. Public transport is a public service first and foremost. Of course, bus services need to be commercially viable to some degree but the operator's primary consideration must be serving the people and not just watching its own wallet.

We have a situation now where the penalties that the NTA performance metrics - it is important that performance metrics are put in place but it is also important that they do not have adverse impacts - are applying to operators are having the opposite effect. They are supposed to improve reliability but they are making the situation worse.

We want to see people using public transport. It is encouraging that we are seeing a greater level of provision outside of Dublin. It is important that we build on that and I reiterate my support for that. We want public transport to be people's preferred mode to the greatest extent possible but one of the biggest barriers to that in Dublin is a perception that our bus services are becoming increasingly unreliable, and we have to nip that in the bud. People need confidence in our public transport to bring about the modal shift that we need to see from an emissions reduction perspective and from a quality of life perspective and we have still plenty of work to do in that regard.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill because it affords me the chance to put on the record some concerns I have, which I believe can be addressed through amendments to the Bill in relation to sustainable transport planning in the Drogheda area, an area that the Minister is very familiar with. In his remarks, the Minister referred to the fact that this particular legislation aligned with the overall objective to ensure that the NTA managed transport initiatives into the future in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford, and that is commendable. However, there is one area missing from that ambition, and that is Drogheda. Drogheda is, as the Minister will be aware, one of the fastest growing parts of the country. It is Ireland's next city. The population of the "metropolitan", if I can describe it as such, Drogheda area is the same, if not more, than the population of Waterford at this moment in time and it is being left behind.

I will be proposing an amendment to include Louth in the greater Dublin area, GDA, for the purposes of transport planning to ensure that transport can be planned in a much more sustainable fashion than has hitherto been the case in the area that I represent. The Minister might ask what the point of that is. The point is as follows. The Minister will know that, last week, a welcome announcement was made about the establishment of two new train stations in Navan. That is required. We need to get people out of cars, onto train lines and into the city for work, and vice versa as well in getting people from Dublin to Navan to work. Nobody can quibble with that. However, the Minister will be aware that Drogheda has only one train station and the north side of Drogheda is one of the most rapidly growing areas of this country. The Minister will be aware that several thousand new homes are being built there as we speak, a couple of thousand have been built already, and there is a strong argument for a north Drogheda train station on the main Belfast-to-Dublin line but the Minister, the NTA and Irish Rail are playing a game of pass the parcel. The National Transport Authority says it has no responsibility for this because Drogheda is not in the greater Dublin area for the purposes of transportation strategy. The NTA has regard to the GDA plans and Drogheda's connection with Dublin from a commuter point of view but it does nothing about it that really matters. The NTA says it is the Minister's responsibility to develop a train station on the north side of Drogheda. I merely asked the National Transport Authority whether it would develop a business case because I believed in evidence-based planning for initiatives such as this, but the NTA refused to do it because it said that the area was not in the GDA and it was a matter for the Minister. As for Irish Rail, I met the CEO a couple of weeks ago. She said that she would like to see something like this happen but it was matter, of course, of funding and prioritisation in terms of Irish Rail's strategy.

We have a game of pass the parcel. Nobody is taking responsibility. The Minister is not taking responsibility for it, the NTA is not taking responsibility for it, and Irish Rail says it would like to do something about it but nobody is directing the company. This project, which is absolutely necessary for the area, is an orphan project. It is nobody's child, and a situation where we have one of the fastest growing urban areas in the country poorly serviced by rail services is not the way we should be managing the sustainable development of our transport infrastructure in this country. I have been listening to this excuse for years now from the National Transport Authority, really since the agency was set up and the Dublin Transportation Office changed, etc. It seems that, from the point of view of planning such as this, the NTA really is just the Dublin Transportation Office with a different label. The Minister knows the relationship of Louth and Dublin in terms of commuters. He knows how important that is. We need to plan that sustainably and we need to deliver the new train station. We need to find a way to do that.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I want to talk about the delays in the roll-out of BusConnects in Limerick, a city the Minister knows well and that he has said a lot of positive things about previously. We were promised this in 2025, and 2025 became 2026, then 2027, and is now 2028. From what the departmental officials have said, we know that the NTA does not have enough funding when it comes to the roll-out of new services and that is why we are seeing a deprioritisation of public transport by the Government, particularly compared with the previous Government, which had the 2:1 ratio in favour of spending on public transport, which I support.

If it is rolled out by 2028, then by that time we will have had a nine-year horizon since BusConnects was first mooted as part of the Limerick Shannon Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy. This is something that could really affect us in terms of housing, balanced regional development and attracting in foreign direct investment, FDI, because our unreliable bus network in Limerick undermines confidence and the modal shift that we all know we need in order to meet our climate targets. For example, King's Island is one of the most deprived communities in the country. King's Island has no bus service after 6 p.m. It has one of the lowest rates of car ownership in the country. It has no bus service on a Sunday. It has no bus service on a bank holiday Monday. It is waiting on BusConnects for this to be delivered. Condell Road is the only major primary road in Limerick with a bus lane but no bus service. It, too, is waiting on BusConnects. It is a 45-minute walk to the local secondary school. It is a 30-minute walk to the local primary school. We have had hundreds of houses built out there in the past couple of years, which I welcome, but there is no bloody bus. Delaying this further means that this will come in after the transport strategy and after the regional spatial and economic strategy, RSES, review and it will not be able to leverage these. Limerick Chamber has written to the Minister on this and I echo what it has said. We need to get a hell of a lot more people in Limerick out of their cars and onto public transport, and the way we do that is by implementing the entirety of BusConnects in a timely manner and making sure the funding is there for the physical interventions because the bus needs priority over private cars.

We need to pass legislation to allow Bus Éireann and other operators to use the CCTV on their buses to penalise private motorists illegally driving in bus lanes and introduce traffic cameras on every single bus lane to make sure that, if you are caught driving on a bus lane, you automatically get penalty points and a fine.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on what is important legislation. The Minister will be aware of some of the issues I will raise.

The first one is, as the Minister himself said, that this Bill is to provide a clear legislative framework for the NTA to undertake the construction of public transport infrastructure projects, such as BusConnects. Will the Minister confirm if this legislation before us will cover the legislation that is needed to allow the opening of the M4 eastbound bus priority lane, which, as he will be aware, is a project spanning from Maynooth junction 7 to Leixlip junction 5 in County Kildare? The Minister will be aware that this would allow buses to use the dedicated hard shoulder to bypass congestion. The physical infrastructure is constructed, as we all know, but it awaits legislation.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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It is done.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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What is done?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The secondary legislation was signed last week.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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That is the best news I have got from the Minister today.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Just read my press releases.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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I thank the Minister. He and I will pose for a photograph.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy could have saved himself three and a half minutes.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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The Minister and I will pose for a photograph after that.

I will also mention that the Minister is also - I have spoken to him and the powers that be after he mentioned the need for more buses to get me into Leinster House early in the morning - looking at the N7.

I spoke to the NTA last week about this and it is examining the issue. Perhaps the Minister can give us some more good news on the N7 project because it would make a difference to the car park it is. I appreciate what the Minister said and the legislation having been signed is very good news.

In the short time I have left, I know the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will agree with me about the lack of train services from Kilkenny, Waterford and my home town of Athy to Dublin. The first train service from my home town of Athy is at 6.40 a.m. Unfortunately, a lot of people who come to Athy, and are very welcome to make their homes and families there, cannot get into work for 8 a.m., which is when they need to be there. That needs to change. We have spoken about how public transport can be a game changer for so many.

Before I came to the Chamber I received phone calls from two people who were on a train heading to Athy and Carlow and were standing because all six carriages were full. I am sure the Leas-Cheann Comhairle would agree on the need to address this, given that the train is heading to Kilkenny as well. We need to improve train services. We need an hourly train service, something I have raised on previous occasions with the Minister. I thank the Minister for the good news he has brought to the House today. It is to be hoped the people of Athy will hear more good news in the coming weeks on hourly train services.

Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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A significant number of people across my county of Cork are growing increasingly frustrated by the slow progress on public transport delivery, in particular when it comes to BusConnects and next generation ticketing. I commend the Minister's Department, Irish Rail and Bus Éireann on the improvements have been made because they must be recognised. My job as a Deputy for Cork is to try to progress that even more, in particular regarding BusConnects and next generation ticketing.

BusConnects was presented as a major transformation of our bus system, promising reliable services, better connectivity, more frequent routes and infrastructure that would finally make public transport a realistic option for more and more people. Many years after these commitments were first announced, many communities right across Cork still feel they are waiting for meaningful progress on the ground. Commuters continue to experience, as my colleague has said, overcrowding, delays, unreliable timetables and long journey times. This is having an impact on workers, students and families who are spending far too much time stuck in traffic because public transport alternatives are simply not improving quickly enough.

Regarding next generation ticketing, in 2026 it should be absolutely acceptable to ask that passengers can get on a train or bus and seamlessly tap a bank card or their phone across the public transport network in a way that has become standard practice across many European cities. This technology is not revolutionary in any way; it is basic modern transport infrastructure. This is not simply about convenience. Faster boarding reduces delays, improves journey times and makes bus services more efficient overall. It also makes public transport easier and more attractive to use, in particular for occasional passengers and tourists. As I said, progress has been made in public transport right across Cork city and county, but we have a long way to go, in particular regarding next generation ticketing and BusConnects.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. It is a short and technical, but necessary, Bill. The purpose is straightforward, namely, to extend the powers the NTA exercises in the greater Dublin area to cities such as Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford. It enables the NTA to deliver the infrastructural elements of BusConnects Cork and removes the statutory gap that has held up a major project for far too long. I thank the Minister and his officials for bringing the Bill forward.

We are committed to the development of a strong, modern and integrated public transport system across the State. The programme for Government commits to expanding bus services in our cities and the Bill is part of delivering on that commitment. Expanding the NTA’s power is one thing; how those powers are used is another. I want to use my time to make three points about that.

First, on balance, the NTA must prioritise sensible solutions. Public transport investment is welcome. Road safety investment is welcome and necessary. However, schemes must be designed in a way that does not create excessive congestion, does not push traffic onto residential streets and does not undermine access for older residents, people with disabilities or local businesses. In my constituency of Dún Laoghaire, communities have raised legitimate concerns about the design of specific schemes. Those concerns deserve to be heard. The NTA delivers better outcomes when it engages early, listens properly and adjusts where the evidence supports it. The same goes for local authorities.

Second, on bus reliability, while looking to expand the network we must not lose sight of reliability on existing routes. The so-called ghost bus problem in Dublin, in particular, is one I have raised on multiple occasions in the House. It impedes and undermines public confidence in public transport as buses disappear. Passengers see them on the app and screen and then they simply disappear.

In recent months, cancellation rates on some routes have reached 8%. Fines for PSOs are one thing, but the public simply require dependability. To be fair, the ghost bus phenomenon originated under a previous Minister and this Minister has said that is unacceptable, and I agree. The new Trapeze automatic vehicle location system is being rolled out, and that is welcome. The underlying causes, that is, driver and mechanic shortages and the congestion that delays buses across the city, must be addressed. The NTA’s contracts with operators must be tightened. Reliability must come before expansion. We also need increased frequency on Sundays, which I have raised on previous occasions in the House, and integrated ticketing.

Third, there must be far greater urgency on rail and on Luas. The greater Dublin area transport strategy provides for the extension of the Luas green line from Bride’s Glen to Bray. That extension was identified as a priority more than a decade ago. The Bray Luas would serve Cherrywood, Old Connaught, Fassaroe and Bray DART station and it would transform travel along the N11 corridor. It would relieve pressure on a road network that is at breaking point and capacity on the green line needs to increase. Yet, the most recent projections push delivery of the expansion of the green line into the 2031-36 window and that is simply not good enough. The people of north Wicklow and the area south of Dún Laoghaire have been waiting too long. The DART+ Coastal South to Wicklow, the Luas Finglas extension and the planned extension of the green line to Bray must all be advanced with urgency. We need the same focus and the same statutory drive on rail, including heavy rail, that this Bill provides for BusConnects.

I support this Bill. I ask the Minister to bring forward, as soon as possible, a clear delivery timetable for the Luas extension to Bray and a published plan to address the ghost bus problem on the Dublin bus network.

Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Bill. The expansion of the terms in the legislation is welcome. We have to recognise that those who seek to access Dublin are not just necessarily from the county of Dublin or the immediate area, but come from further away. I am not sure about the wisdom of placing two Dún Laoghaire constituency Deputies one after the other because I listened to Deputy Devlin's speech and he hit on many of the issues that are important for our area. I, too, feel very strongly about them.

One would think a place like Dún Laoghaire benefits from a fine public transport system and, in many respects, that is true. Yet, as we replace the 46A with the E spine, E2 to Dún Laoghaire and the E1 to Bray, we have not had the reliable service we would expect. I welcome the 24-hour nature of the service and it has hugely improved access to the city centre for people in my area, but unfortunately people do not have confidence that the bus stated on the timetable will actually arrive. In fact, this morning, Conor, an intern working in my office, was on a bus that overheated at 9.30 a.m. The weather is lovely and it is great to have the sun shining, but we cannot have a situation where that is causing buses to overheat. He had to wait a long time for a replacement bus to come along.

I receive emails over and over again from people in the local area who tell me about ghost buses, something I know the Minister is aware of. We cannot have a situation whereby people try to get a bus to work, but the bus which is supposed to bring them there does not come. When a bus is on the timetable and the real-time information at the bus stop but does not arrive, that is a disaster in many respects. First, it contributes to a lack of faith in the reliability of the system. It causes people to be late. The next bus that comes is already full. The route is one bus short and it means that the capacity of the route is diminished because at rush hour in the mornings buses are full and can barely cope with what is there. If one bus does not turn up, that creates huge stress on the line as a whole and a difficulty for people getting on the next bus that comes. It is the same at the next stop and the stop after that.

You end up with lots of people being late for work, which is very unfair and also compromises their faith in the system. The DART is fantastic and is a wonderful service but it is not frequent enough. I know this is a complex problem and is not something that is easily solved. The frequency of the DART is hugely important.

Last week, I was in Paris with Granada Football Club in Blackrock as we were playing a tournament there. Getting around Paris is incredibly easy. There is an underground metro system there but it is coupled with a bus system that is much more local. It means you can reliably get to anywhere within Paris within half an hour. The same cannot be said of Dublin. I have been a long time champion of a proper underground metro system for Dublin. That has to be not just part of the plan but part of the implementation. If we had started the metro for Dublin when we started talking about it, it would be built now and we would not be relying on buses, many of which do not operate on an electric basis and are still using diesel, clogging up traffic lanes and contributing to environmental pollution. We need to move to a phase where we accept that underground metro transport is part and parcel of being a modern, European city. I know that sometimes there is an allergy in Irish public policy terms to these massive public infrastructure projects. We have had our fingers burned on some projects, although we also fail to recognise those projects that go ahead, are finished on time or ahead of time and on budget or for less than the initial budget. It happens but that does not get coverage in the newspapers. In reality, there is a fear around large infrastructure projects but the building of a metro does not have to be a massive infrastructure project.

Again, look at the example of Paris. I lived in Paris over 20 years ago and when I was there, they were building Line 14, which is known locally as the Meteor. It had a driverless train, which meant there were not the same difficulties if somebody was not available to come to work for whatever personal reason and that the system could still function. They started off with four stops in central Paris. It ran along a relatively limited area. They built four stops and that was the original infrastructural project. After that, they added a stop at either end, followed by another stop and another stop. That same Line 14 now runs from Saint-Lazare, a major train station in Paris, right the way through the centre of Paris and all the way out to Aéroport d'Orly. We have nothing comparable to that in Dublin. We are really lacking in terms of the infrastructure that needs to be provided in that regard and it is time we got going on that, even if it is only to build a small part of it that can then be added to. In my respectful view, that is the way we have to do it. Instead of deciding we will build a 100-stop metro, let us build one line and we can then add to it. It is something that needs to be given huge priority.

BusConnects is something that made huge progress for us. I am not yet convinced by the renaming of all the routes. A cultural icon, the 46A, is gone but that is another issue entirely. The replacement of certain routes will take time for people to get used to. The bigger difficulty I have with BusConnects is the consultation with local communities. In Shankill in particular, we had a massive problem. There were 3,500-odd signatures on a petition against it or, specifically, against what it would do to Shankill village. That cannot be allowed to happen. If we are going to build large, effective public transport systems, we must couple with that a respect for the people they are supposed to serve. They cannot destroy small villages in County Dublin if they are meant to serve that community. We need to listen to people. A public consultation has to be real and informed but also something that listens to people and does not impose upon them the decision of a bureaucrat or somebody who is may be an excellent public transport designer but not somebody who has to live with the consequences of the design that ultimately comes from that.

The extension of the Luas is hugely important. The Luas does amazing work. It has been a lifeline for many communities, particularly in the south Dublin area, that were just that bit far away from the DART or might not have add access to corridors like the N11. It has worked really well but it can do so much more. I am happy to say that in Dun Laoghaire, we have very advanced cycling infrastructure that is developing all of the time. It is not without its problems. It is not without its huge inconvenience for people in the local community and I think there is a problem with the way it is being built in the same area, at the same time. A road gets done and then a road around the corner gets done, which creates consecutive inconveniencies for the same community but that is for another debate.

When the Luas was built, we had this rail corridor that was created. There was an opportunity to put in a really effective cycle corridor that would run in parallel to the Luas. That was not done. As a result, a cyclist cannot cycle along the same corridor as the Luas. What is perhaps more frustrating is that you cannot bring your bicycle onto the Luas. You are prevented from doing that. It is a real missed opportunity. For that microtransport element, the idea is you cannot get on the Luas with your bike at Cherrywood, get the Luas to Ranelagh and then cycle to somewhere that might be adjacent to the Luas but is too far away to walk. We need to do more to allow people to carry bikes on public transport. The Luas has done really good work but it could do so much more.

Public transport has to be the backbone of the function of any city. If we are not delivering a public transport system that people can have confidence in, that they can rely on and that is cost effective, we are then failing those commuters. The more people we can persuade to get on the DART, Luas or the bus, the more who are not getting into cars, often on their own, clogging up the roads, creating environmental hazards, making it more difficult for cyclists and pedestrians and generally creating more problems. Let us put in place a system that we can not just be proud of but that we want to use, we can use and we can rely on to get us to work, school or college on time.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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I live in Dublin 15. It has a population of over 120,000 and it is predicted to go to 140,000 in 2029. Yet, we do not have the long promised direct bus to the airport. I can get a direct bus pretty much from anywhere in the Thirty-two Counties but if I want to head to the airport, I have to pay €50 for a taxi or get two buses. This is not an option for the hundreds who work in the airport. Can the Minister get onto the NTA and ask about it? It has been promised for every single year since 2024 but has not turned up. In Tyrrelstown, a complete review of the public transport system is needed. It is not working for the people and there is no plan to go into Kilmartin, which is a huge new estate. I ask the Minister to please ask the NTA to have a look at forward planning and get its act together.

We have the new active travel plan on the N3-M50. That is brilliant. It is a bus lane that will make it faster for residents in Littlepace to get into town. What does the NTA do? It removes the number 70 bus that will bring people directly onto the new bus lane and leaves a pointless cycle lane that goes across the N3 to a garage. Once again, the NTA needs to start listening to the people.

Metro west has been cancelled until 2042. I am pleading with the Minister to please put this back on the agenda because how long has it taken for Metro north to get to this stage? We will all be retired - actually we will probably all have shuffled off this mortal coil - by the time it is done. It will connect the DART+ to Maynooth and the newly proposed Navan rail line at metro north. We know the M50 is at capacity. If that is not a reason to get it started now, I do not know what is. It is really time for the public transport network system to be a network system that works for all. We see it in every major European country.

The DART+ will be brilliant when it comes into play but it is very disjointed. We need metro west connecting with DART+. We need BusConnects and the NTA listening to the people who are on the ground - they are the bus users and know what works. I urge the Minister to have a chat with the NTA and ask it to listen to us.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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The news on the Navan rail corridor was very welcome and I encourage people to engage with the public consultation that is ongoing. I will engage with it and it is very welcome news. Until Navan rail is delivered, the vast majority of public transport in Meath is by bus and on road. There are major weaknesses with the existing services there. The 103, 105 and 109 routes are servicing busy commuter routes in Ashbourne, Rathoath, Dunshaughlin and Kells. It is not a case of whether there will be cancellations on a daily basis, there are cancellations on a daily basis. Today, ten services have been cancelled on the 103 route between 2.30 p.m. and 11.30 p.m. Six services have been cancelled on route 109 during the same time. We have to improve the buses, the fleet, drivers and mechanics. I ask the Minister to please address those issues.

There are areas that have no services at all. I raise the case of Bellewstown, County Meath. I am very supportive of the Connecting Ireland rural transport plan but there is underinvestment and it is slow in its roll-out. A 13-year-old boy, James, launched a petition which has over 450 people. He is calling for a local bus service for Bellewstown. There was a bus service in the 1930s in Bellewstown. He is a really good young lad who has taken an interest in this. He is passionate in pursuing it. The Minister might facilitate a meeting with him at some stage if he is in Meath or maybe in Leinster House, so he can raise the issues with him. I appreciate the Minister is nodding. We can arrange that.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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The NTA in its current form is too distant, too rigid and too centralised. Simply put, it is not local enough. This Bill will go some way to help in this regard. The authority is not embedded in the communities it serves and it is increasingly seen as a large, unresponsive bureaucracy. Decisions are being made about towns and villages by an organisation that does not understand how they work. This is a major issue. I see it every day in my constituency of Wicklow.

In Greystones, four school principals are representing over 4,000 students and families. I asked the NTA to sit down and meet them because Greystones is very much a growing town and the needs of many of the schoolchildren who use the buses are not being met by the current bus service. We were trying to resolve that issue. The NTA said it could not meet the principals because, if it did that, it would have to meet everyone. Maybe that is the point. Maybe it should be meeting them. The principals I have referred to represent 4,000 people. It would have been worthwhile for the NTA to sit down and hear exactly what gaps were in the service and potentially what it could do. I realise it cannot address this overnight but it is important for it to hear what the gaps are.

When we have a system that is made so centrally and rigidly, it causes a lot of difficulties. I will give some examples. I have spoken many times in here about the 199 bus, a Local Link bus that was to go from Glendalough through Laragh and Roundwood to Bray. It was announced in April 2025. In May, I was told it was fully funded and that it was a priority service. In July, it went out to tender. In August, Nolan Coaches won the tender. The company hired four drivers and got a bus but that bus is now sitting in a depot in Clonshaugh and has not yet been put into operation. The service was meant to start in September but still has not started. It is now May 2026, a year since the NTA told me the bus route was a priority and had funding. It would now appear that the funding is no longer available, and the service is certainly not operating.

Let me look to west Wicklow. I had a group of students in today, some of whom were from Blessington and some of whom were from Baltinglass. The Blessington group had to get the 65 bus from Blessington to the Dáil. It took them two and a half hours although it is a 50-minute journey by car. They were telling me about the problems. They could not get the 9.30 a.m. service because it is always late, so they had to get the 8 a.m. service. All of these small issues cause enormous problems for people.

The Baltinglass crowd just did not have transport available to them and they had to hire a minibus. There are four services on the 132 bus route every day that connect Baltinglass to Dublin via Tallaght. People tell me that at least once a day one of those services is cancelled. This is a Bus Éireann service. Many times, people are left stranded in work in Tallaght with no way of getting home. People have to be able to trust the bus service in place for them. Unfortunately, there is no reliability. Where there are problems with reliability, frequency and trust, it is important that the NTA act as a go-between. It needs to understand and hear what the problems are. Unfortunately, that is not happening.

As I have raised previously, the issues go beyond the bus services as they also affect the DART service. I want to raise again with the Minister that there have not been replacement buses or additional Luas services put in place, but there are going to be 30,000 women taking part in the VHI Women's Mini Marathon. It is the world's largest all-women 10 km race and raises €10 million for charities every year. For the second year in a row, there is going to be no DART between Wicklow and Dublin city for the marathon. Last year, people told me there were no additional Luas or bus services and people were late to the race. I understand that sometimes the long weekends are a good opportunity for staff to carry out works, but there needs to be some recognition that there are just some weekends where the service is so needed that it should be running.

When we talk about extending the NTA's powers, we also have to talk about accountability because, at the moment, there are serious questions about the NTA's oversight. Just last week, we learned that Irish Rail effectively had to write off €50 million on a failed IT project, a traffic management system that was meant to modernise the rail network. That is €50 million down the drain. It was not a minor project. It was described as central to how the railway network would be managed but it failed. This is an Irish Rail project but the NTA is the approving and overseeing authority for Irish Rail, so we need some oversight. Why was there no intervention in this instance?

Before we extend the remit of the NTA any further, it is vital that it fix what is already broken. We need to start seeing genuine local engagement, not just tick-box consultation. We need to see clear, timely communication with communities and public representatives. We need to see faster, transparent responses to parliamentary questions. We need to see stronger oversight of project delivery and spending. Above all, we need to see accountability when things go wrong. Without those reforms, we are not expanding a service; we are expanding a system that people unfortunately do not trust despite its importance. Trust, once lost, is difficult to rebuild, but it can be rebuilt through engagement, accountability and willingness to listen to the people who rely on the services every day.

I hope the Minister takes all these suggestions on board. It is important that the NTA work with communities. That is how we put a really good public transport system in place.

Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
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In the context of today's discussion, I want to focus on bus services and their discontents, and in some cases their near-total absence, across east Cork. We hear a great deal about BusConnects, strategic corridors and the future of public transport in Cork. It is vital that the ambition extend beyond the city and the immediate suburbs. In east Cork, the current standard of bus service is utterly abysmal. I strongly believe that the Midleton-Youghal rail link is an essential part of the long-term public transport future of east Cork and that commuting misery between Youghal and the city is only going to get increasingly worse until it is restored. Rail development has to be supplemented with a quality bus service that reaches all of our settlements. What east Cork urgently needs is a frequent, reliable and efficient bus network connecting our villages, towns, schools, workplaces, healthcare services, train stations and tourism destinations.

At present, people living in villages such as Cloyne, Ballycotton, Whitegate, Aghada and Saleen are effectively stranded if they do not have access to a car. That is the reality. For many people, this is about whether they can get to college, attend a medical appointment, visit family or take part in ordinary community life. The impact is particularly severe for disabled people, older people, young people, those on low incomes and anyone who cannot drive or afford to run a car. It affects the wider public as well because, when bus services are inadequate, everyone is pushed into car dependency, even for short journeys that should be possible by public transport. That means more cars on already overburdened roads. It means more congestion around Midleton, Lakeview, Castleredmond and Ballinacurra. It means more pressure on families and reduced independence for people who should not have to rely on lifts from relatives or neighbours to get around. This is also an embarrassment from the perspective of tourism. East Cork has extraordinary towns and villages and also an extraordinary coastline, heritage and food culture. We are inviting tourists to come here, many from countries where high-quality public transport is standard. When they arrive, they find that getting around without a car is extremely difficult. That is not acceptable in a wealthy country.

This is where the Department of public expenditure has to be challenged. The public wants better services and local communities are crying out for them. The Department of Transport understands that need. Local operators are willing to provide services but too often the cold, dead hand of the Department strangles any prospect of new services developing, as if we were living in an impoverished nation that could not afford basic regional transport. This is short-sighted in terms of our economy, social needs, tourism potential, disability considerations and, of course, carbon emissions.

A functioning bus network is a basic need. If the Government is serious about sustainable development in east Cork, it must invest in the bus services that allow people to live, work, study, visit others and age with dignity and purpose in their communities without being completely dependent on cars.

Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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I welcome this Bill and the debate we are having because we urgently need reform when it comes to public transport. Cork needs better public transport. We currently have no Luas, too many ghost buses, and towns that are not connected. This is having a huge impact on people's day-to-day lives and their ability to get around the city and county.

It is leading to an increased car dependency and increased reliance on fossil fuels. It is constraining development and is leading to increased traffic. It urgently needs to change.

For buses in Cork, we are way behind what people have in other cities. There are currently no Leap card validaters on buses in Cork, which slows down bus journeys. It also means that people in Cork cannot avail of the 90-minute flat fare that they can get in Dublin. It is not acceptable that the people in Cork pay more for public transport than those in Dublin. That needs to change fast.

Across the country, we need contactless, tap-on buses. We need to get people on and off public transport quicker to improve journey times and make it a more reliable service. There has not been urgency around this issue and that needs to change.

There are also no e-buses in Cork because the depot has not been upgraded. That has been delayed again and again. As a result, we have an older bus stock and get more breakdowns and delays. I was at the bus stop outside my house recently and of the five buses due, four were cancelled. That happens because of a lack of drivers, breakdowns and delays of buses in Cork. It needs investment and support. There needs to be prioritisation of Cork because it is so far behind. Even when it comes to the information on a bus stop, there is a lack of real-time information. There is a lack of bus shelters. Some of the basic infrastructure that you would expect for a modern public transport system is lacking across Cork city and county. It is not acceptable any more.

We also need more park-and-ride facilities. We need improvement across the system. As was mentioned earlier, we also need more local decision-making and input, and more transparency and accountability. Over two months ago, I submitted parliamentary questions around the funding of bus routes in Cork. Two months later, I still do not have a reply from the Minister of the Department. I have written to the Minister and the NTA but we have not got the substantial answers we are looking for to those parliamentary questions. There is a real lack of transparency and accountability, and it needs to change. We need better information and better engagement with local communities and public representatives to ensure that we have a better public transport system that works for everybody. It has an impact on everybody's day-to-day life. If it were serious about climate action, which I do not think the Government is, we would be radically investing in public transport. We would be improving the bus network, delivering a Luas for Cork and enhancing our bus network. What we have instead is delay after delay, one of the oldest bus fleets in the country, people waiting for ghost buses and, as I said, towns that are not connected. It is not good enough. We need urgent change and reform. Cork deserves a better public transport system and needs it now.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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I welcome the roll-out of any public transport across the country. A fully functioning republic needs bus and rail services that are reliable and affordable. To reach our climate targets, we need to be moving a little quicker. However, people are not going to get out of their cars if buses do not arrive. They are not going to get out of their cars if it is dangerous to cycle. They are not going to take the bicycle. They are not going to go on public transport if it does not arrive. That is a huge difficulty in my constituency of Dublin South-Central. The Minister of State and I have spoken a lot about buses in Dublin South-Central. He probably knows quite a lot about the public transport in my constituency.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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I could drive the bus nearly.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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The Minister of State could nearly drive the bus. Would he turn up on time? That would be fantastic.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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I would try my best.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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The difficulty is that since I was elected, I have held eight public meetings and a number of them were solely about public transport. Our constituency is close to the city. The focus for Bus Connects is getting people from the commuter belts into the city. That seems to have failed is when you live close to the city and the system is not functioning fully.

The community of Bluebell-Inchicore has been protesting very well since before I was elected. I pay tribute to former Deputy Joan Collins, her friends and neighbours, and the people she supports for all the work they have done on that bus route. The problem is that the new bus routes the NTA wants to bring in will not bring those people to Thomas Street, Meath Street or Francis Street, or all the surrounding areas where they go shopping and where their religious services, doctors, dentists and opticians are. This is a difficulty. Only approximately 40% of the people in that part of the constituency own cars. Very few people are driving. They are an older population. They are not all on bikes. If you have your weekly shopping, you are not going to be bringing it on your bicycle unless you have a cargo bike. The bus service there is a disaster for those people. They are protesting all the time.

A second group of people are from Drimnagh. I had a public meeting there recently. The difficulty there is that the bus service now follows a different route, which nobody wants. This is not the only place in my constituency where this is an issue. The NTA dreams up where people want to go when, in fact, it is not where they want to go. They are cut off from coming into town. They are cut off from their doctors and all the medical things that are there. There is also the fact that there are ghost buses. The buses do not turn up on time and are not reliable.

In Chapelizod, the NTA has admitted it did not get it right for the 80 bus. It is going the wrong route. It does not turn up. It is a disaster in terms of ghosting. The ramp that was to be built by the end of the year seems to have disappeared, like half the buses.

The NTA is admitting to not getting it right. People are contacting public representatives on a regular basis. This is the challenge when the service moves to other parts of the country. My advice to any communities to which the NTA or Bus Connects is coming is to go to every single consultation, make sure they are there, make an effort and have their voices heard. I urge them to ensure they keep a record. Plenty of people who have been to those consultations are told that something did not happen and they feel they were not listened to. They feel they were absolutely ignored. For anyone thinking about going to consultations, I suggest they take a record, write down who was there and the names of the representatives. It is important for them to liaise with their public representatives, TDs and councillors, to ensure they know what they want so that we can advocate for them. I have spent so much time advocating for bus services. As a cyclist, I must say that I have never learned as much about buses as I have in the time since I was elected. The reality is that we need to do better.

It is vital that the Minister for Transport is responsible for the NTA. I cannot understand why it does not report to him. I am sure it is not called a "quango" but whatever it is called and whatever the relationship is, it must fall under the remit of the Minister for Transport. It must report to him because if it does not, I do not know who it will report to. The Minister needs to get a grip of what is going on in the NTA, particularly in Dublin South-Central and any other place it is going to.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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I am broadly in agreement with the Bill. The expansion of the NTA is not necessarily a bad thing. However, the NTA has serious issues. If you speak to residents of my constituency in Finglas and Glasnevin, you know there are significant issues. It is one of the biggest issues I have had to deal with since I was elected. Complaints come into my office about the NTA and bus services. There is a real issue with the lack of accountability and engagement. There is a real issue about the connection between the NTA and the Minister.

There is also the issue of privatisation and outsourcing within the bus services. The broad issue is that our public transport infrastructure is not up to scratch. It is not delivering the services that people need. In my constituency, in particular, the replacements for routes such as the 9, 83 and 13 have not provided an improved bus service for many people. People's experience is that it is now harder to use buses and public transport as a result of the changes. People say they have had to go back to the car because the new routes do not go through their communities and do not bring them where they need to go. There is a fundamental problem here. I, along with residents from Glasnevin and Finglas and other Deputies, have protested at the NTA. I have organised public meetings on the issue. We gave a clear message to the NTA about the need for changes to address frequency, the issue of ghost buses and to replace service routes that were taken away, particularly the number 24 bus, which ran down Beneavin Road. The NTA promised that service would be brought back but there is still no clear timeline for that. It is not acceptable.

People rely on these buses. They plan their lives around them. There is a real disconnect between the Minister, the NTA and what people are experiencing on the ground in communities, whether it is children going to school, elderly people getting to hospital appointments or people getting into town. They cannot get around their communities or this city. Public transport is absolutely central to providing people with quality of life and access to the services they need.

The F spine routes are still not operating to the extent that would make them adequate replacements for the old routes. As I said, people regularly get in touch with my office about cancellations, delays and ghost buses. This service is neither suitable nor up to standard. We need action on this to ensure that people have quality public transport.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I looked at the Dáil's business for this week with interest and saw that we would be taking the Dublin Transport Authority (Amendment) Bill. It is somewhat ironic that the Bill will be of far more benefit to the Minister of State's constituents than it will to mine, because many of the amendments being brought forward relate to BusConnects in Cork. This shows the development of the NTA, which was originally the Dublin Transport Authority before being renamed, and the fact that it was not initially given the clear powers now being granted to it. Like other Deputies, I welcome the standardisation of the powers the NTA will have to act as a developer of both public infrastructure and public transport across the country. The development of BusConnects in Cork, which has been long promised, will be aided by the delivery of this project.

The introduction of BusConnects in Dublin was fairly rocky. Many Deputies campaigned against what the NTA proposed because, in many cases, it went against what local communities wanted. There was not enough of an understanding at the beginning on the part of the NTA as to how people use the bus services. Clusters of people's children might attend a particular school that is some distance away, but they picked that school because there was a bus route to it from their area. It might not make logical sense on a map, but when people see that there is a bus route from A to B, they can see the logic of why families chose that particular school. Therefore, there needs to be far more engagement in Cork, at an earlier point. Many of the lessons relating to what happened in Dublin need to be taken on board.

There is no doubt that the NTA listened when it came to some services. It made significant changes and restored services because it saw the logic in doing so. This often happened in places where communities came together and where the passenger experience was outlined in documented form. I have never been a fan of signing petitions. A petition just shows how many people are against something, but showing the NTA why a service was being used in the way it was had an impact. The NTA listened. In other areas, it pushed ahead with the introduction of BusConnects. As my colleague said earlier in the context of the 23, 24, F1, F2 and F3 in Finglas, the idea is to remove a direct connection to the traditional shopping area comprising O'Connell Street and Henry Street for people from Finglas and Glasnevin and to reduce the frequency of the old 40 buses by introducing the new F1, F2 and F3. Deputies cannot walk through this House without an usher stopping them to tell them that the F1 or F2 did not turn up on a particular morning. The ushers and people who work in the self-service and Members' restaurants, many of whom live in my constituency, will say that they go to the bus stop and sometimes wait 30, 40 or 50 minutes, whereas previously they waited 10, 15 or 20 minutes. Those lessons have to be learnt.

The NTA has a big job to do. I am concerned about extending its power and remit, but I want to see it deliver the Finglas Luas and metro projects. I also want the new designated activity company, DAC, to be established in order that those projects can proceed. I want to see work begin on one of the first core bus corridors that is being developed, namely that between Finglas and Ballymun. It was due to start in March or April, but I have not yet seen the shovel in the ground. We want to see the core bus corridors in place and logic being applied in the context of how they operate.

There will be disagreement, but it is all about communicating. We have to make sure that we have forums for local people to engage. Local people are not a nuisance. They provide information on ways to improve services and their engaging with the process represents an opportunity to communicate change.

We have to make sure that these big infrastructure projects are delivered. The Critical Infrastructure Bill is an important part of that. I will continue to make the case for Finglas Luas. It is a no-brainer. It will cost €600 million for 4 km of track, and the project will have a massive impact in the context of bringing improvement to our area. It will open up the possibility of new opportunities for people who work and live in our area. We must ensure that the railway order that was granted earlier this year is followed through on quickly with the approval gates for the business case, a procurement policy, enabling works, advance works, construction and then, "Ding, ding", the opening of the Luas line into Finglas. That is what we want to see. There are good signs that this is happening with great speed. I want to make sure that there is no slippage. I will do everything in my power in this House to make sure that project is delivered. I ask the Minister of State to support it in the way his colleague the Minister, Deputy O'Brien does.

James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I welcome this Bill. It underpins the investment the Government is making in public transport. There is a false narrative which seeks to divide urban and rural Ireland and which states that this Government is all about roads and that the previous Government was all about public transport. That is absolute rubbish. There is investment in MetroLink, which will be a critical project. Deputy McAuliffe mentioned the extension of the Luas to Finglas, which former Fine Gael Deputy Noel Roc, advocated for even as a councillor. It will be transformative for Dublin.

In addition to the other Luas extensions that are proposed, I want to advocate for a Luas extension to Poolbeg. The Minister of State will recall that I raised this as a Topical issue. He was here when I raised it. That was almost a year ago, and I am delighted to say that there has been a lot of progress on and support for the project thanks to the work of the Minister for Transport, the two Ministers of State in the Department, the NTA and the TII. When I raised it earlier with the Taoiseach, he acknowledged the importance of the project proceeding for the enormous village that is being built on the Glass Bottle site in Poolbeg. More than 10,000 people are due to live there and, potentially, an additional 10,000 people will work there. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, when a study was done in 2016 about that project, the demand was not sufficient, but that all changed. Since I was elected as a TD, I have used every vehicle available to me to advocate for the project. I have met the NTA and TII. I have engaged with the Minister of State and the Minister on this issue.

A new demand survey was taken out, which proved that, with the development of the Glass Bottle site and other adjacent development in the area, there is absolutely a need for an extension to Poolbeg. We were informed as recently as a few weeks ago that the project has moved from phase 1 to phase 2 and that it is hoped that a statutory public consultation relating to the project will begin in 2027. That is a tangible example of how we are making progress in public transport, and in a different form of public transport.

It is fair to say that where we have seen major investment in the past five years is in the area of high-frequency bus routes. I heard many Deputies speak about the challenges they have had in the engagement relating to BusConnects corridors. However, in areas where high-frequency bus routes exist, they are hugely popular and successful. The only frustration people have is when buses do not show up. In other words, when there are ghost buses. That is a big issue with certain bus routes. I have had it in my constituency. In some areas, it is caused by the private operator, Go-Ahead, and, in other cases, it is Dublin Bus that operates the services. When we deliver more high-frequency bus routes, we have to ensure that they are exactly what it says on the tin, namely high-frequency routes, because that is what increases use of public transport. If people know they have to be in college at a certain hour, the bus must pass their door at a particular time. If they know they have to be at work at a certain hour, the bus must arrive to get them there.

Full or packed buses are another problem we have faced with the introduction of high-frequency bus routes. Lots of people want to use them but there is not enough space. That is where Luas and extending light rail comes in. It is blindingly obvious. Many more people can be transported on a Luas, particularly from this area, than on a high-frequency bus route. I should say that it is intended to have a high-frequency bus route to serve the area as well.

What I hope is that there will no let up in the context of the progression of this light rail project.

I hosted a public meeting not so long ago to engage with the community on where this project is at and where it is going, and to listen to people. I was genuinely overwhelmed, both by the attendance at the meeting and the level of interest among people in the issue. The Minister of State would be familiar with what happens when one holds public meetings. I did one a number of years ago on BusConnects where there was huge anguish and real fury about the proposed route through Terenure. There were hundreds of people at the door. What I was trying to do there was ensure that we got people to engage with the process. Unfortunately, that particular bus corridor is currently the subject of a judicial review in the High Court.

We need to learn from this. The way to deal with public transport projects is not to march everyone up a hill and then try to go with the least offensive option at the very end. We need to work with communities right from the beginning. That is what I have tried to do with this Luas to Poolbeg project. I have tried to take the initiative, deliver leaflets, inform people about what is going on, knock on doors and encourage people to come along to public meetings in order to hear their views. There is no question that when you put yourself out there like that as a politician, particularly as a Government TD, people will ask why the Luas is not there already. They can see the apartments under construction. What I am focused on as a new TD in this Dáil is progress and getting this project over the line.

We know that if you start to deliver a pipeline of projects for light rail, there is no end to what you can do. We have the capital available to continue to invest in public transport. We have not extended the Luas since the cross-city project in 2017. We have to keep extending it in order to meet the demand and make provision in respect of the population growth that is taking place. I hope the Minister of State would support me in the Department in supporting the NTA and the TII as they progress their way through the project. I certainly look forward to working with all local TDs and councillors to get this project over the line.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Dublin Transport Authority (Amendment) Bill 2026 is a bit of a misnomer because in lots of ways the legislation is more consequential for Cork and the three regional cities. It extends significant powers of planning. It is important that those powers are used with considerable care and judiciously. It is also important that the powers being given to the NTA, which is a matter that deserves careful consideration, ensures that public consultation is still a strong feature and that points are still taken on board. I will come back to that.

An opportunity is being missed. The Minister of State might consider this and communicate it to the Department. We know that Cork cannot continue to grow in the way that it does while reliant only on cars. We need 21th century public transport. That means a Luas system delivered more quickly than is currently planned and that links north to south in order to bring in areas like Carrigaline and Douglas. There must also be a connection to the airport.

We need to ensure that BusConnects is a success. For it to be a success, we need the bus gates to work. For them to work, we have to have remote enforcement. It is a huge missed opportunity that we have a piece of transport legislation before us that does not contemplate doing that, given that it is absolutely central to the success of BusConnects. It can be a success ,but it will not work if people feel there is no advantage to getting the bus and that bus gates are being abused. Unfortunately, at times, the ban on buses and cars on Patrick's Street, or "Pana", is not entirely as effective as it could be.

The other issue I want to raise is something in respect of which I am sure the Minister of State will agree. The Cork Luas has tremendous potential to be a huge success, but the NTA has to listen to the public and ensure that the right route is chosen. What it is proposing in relation to Bishopstown is a huge mistake. The Bishopstown GAA club is potentially going to lose a playing pitch on account of what is planned, and there are all the safety issues that exist. The Luas should absolutely serve Bishopstown but the NTA should return to the first option it looked at. There is no reason that it should not go on Wilton Road. In lots of ways, it will serve more people if it goes along Wilton Road and down from there as opposed to through Bishopstown GAA club and Highfield RFC. I do not agree with that. The NTA should go back to plan A.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I concur with Deputy Ó Laoghaire in the sense that all of us want to see NTA deliver transport systems that actually work for our people, but an absolutely necessary piece is public consultation, which is absolutely lacking at times. We all welcomed the signing of the new Enterprise fleet. The Dublin to Belfast line is a brilliant service that facilitates the likes of Dundalk. There is a need for a new fleet, but I do not think we will have it until 2028. At the moment, we get complaints about the number of people who want to use the service but who cannot get seats. There is a huge issue regarding Dundalk Clarke Railway Station, where we need to see parking spaces provided. Some spaces were removed previously. I have been over and back with Iarnród Éireann on this matter, but we need to see that. Joanna Byrne would not be too happy if I did not mention the need for a north Drogheda train station but it is about organising this in a proper way.

We all know that we have huge issues in relation to infrastructure. I have asked many questions recently with regard to the N53, not very far from my house, and the particular issues in seeing delivery. However, before when some minor works were happening, they caused a number of leaks in that particular area and so I am afraid when the considerable works start about us being able to deliver it. I am seeing this on a day when people in the likes of Sheelagh and Kilkerley do not have water because of an issue with Dunbin reservoir. I do not think this is acceptable. I accept that it relates to an Uisce Éireann deficit, but I need to put it on record. The telemetry monitor failed and the water ran out as a result. The problem was only discovered when the people of Sheelagh rang me. I rang others. They went out to check the pumps at Hackballscross. This is not the first time this has happened this week. It is a huge issue. I have brought it up with the Taoiseach but I need to draw attention to the infrastructural deficits.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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Many people are, understandably, using this debate as an opportunity to raise a lot of transport issues. I will do that in a second, but I would like to raise serious questions about supporting this Bill. I have a few reasons for doing so.

The NTA is requesting an expansion of its power out of Dublin to the rest of the country, but there are serious questions. People hope that there will be good public consultation. What we have seen with the NTA is great public consultation, but it does not take any of the things on board and there is no accountability. I served on a local authority for 11 years. In fairness to the local authorities, there is public consultation, councillors are held accountable by the local community and public meetings are held. Local knowledge of those councillors and TDs becomes a factor in the whole situation, but that goes out the window with the NTA, TII and all the others.

I will provide an example. A huge public meeting was held in my area a couple of weeks ago in respect of a proposal for TII, in conjunction with Fingal County Council and Meath County Council, to build a footbridge. There must have been 150 people in attendance. The footbridge was going to be erected from an open space in a quiet housing estate over the N3 dual carriageway to a service station in an industrial area. No one asked for this. There was no demonstrable need for it. There was no survey about how many people who live in the location in question work in the industrial estate. Obviously, residents were going to raise issues for safety reasons about e-scooters, e-bikes and all these things that can use a footbridge in order to get onto their estate. There was also the question of providing access to the estate that was not there before and the likelihood of antisocial behaviour. The visual and intrusive impact were also raised, as was spending millions of euro of public money on the project that could instead be spent on much-needed community projects. The irony is that the transport authorities are proposing – I have raised it with the Minister of State on many occasions – to take away a direct bus route from that area into Dublin city. They will spend a few million euro building a bridge to get residents to go where the new bus routes are.

This is absolute madness. I do not know whether there is just a rake of money in a budget and it is a case of let us see where we can spend it or what but it is nothing to do with active travel. The best active travel would be getting people into the city centre who work there, which is probably an awful lot of people, and to their schools, etc.

I am raising this genuinely because eight years ago there was a consultation on that bus route and hundreds of people wrote in. The Minister of State will have heard TDs from all parties raising this. It was just ignored. Will I vote to give more powers to an unaccountable body when local authorities should have much more of these powers, like they always used to? At least there is some accountability from local councillors answerable to their community. That needs to be considered much more.

I will raise some of the other transport things that have been ignored continually. On BusConnects, there have been public meetings all over the place, including in Chapelizod and in Dublin Bay North. Does anyone in the NTA actually listen and respond to these concerns? The big plan for BusConnects in my area is to put everybody through the busiest shopping centre in the country, Blanchardstown Centre - it is also trying to introduce car-parking charges - to route all the buses through there and make it a hub. As has been said, people do not want to have to get off one bus to get onto another. Also, not everybody has that mobility and this is incredibly ableist. Nobody has listened. That is felt across the community. I am not happy to give more powers to the NTA to go around the country taking consultation and voting out of the hands of local councillors.

I could go on all day about transport needs in Dublin West. The greater Blanchardstown area is not all of Dublin West but it is a lot of it. It is the third biggest urban area, after Cork and Limerick, but it does not have the transport we need. We do not have a Luas or a metro. There is a rail line but it is out of reach for people not in Castleknock, Clonsilla and Ashtown, which is a lot of the population. We have a huge number of multinational companies and people driving into the area every day. There should have been a Luas extension from Broombridge to Blanchardstown Centre. It is a greenfield site and would not cost as much as if it was diverted through a whole load of areas. It is needed for Blanchardstown, given the amount of industry we have as well.

I want to mention an issue that is not in my constituency but that does relate to accountability and transport projects. I did not know about this until I came across it today. It concerns the proposal for the Navan rail line. Obviously, Navan is quite near Blanchardstown. The Dunsany Nature Reserve has informed us it would be split in two under the proposed route. It would be a loss of irreplaceable ancient woodland and mature trees. There are noise issues. It would disrupt a huge number of habitats. It has eight of the nine bat species found in Ireland, for example. It is an internationally renowned rewilding project. Books have been written about it. It would also have an impact on the rivers Slane and Boyne.

People are asking if an alternative route will be considered. Everybody will write the letters but it feels like the power is more and more being taken from ordinary people. We write letters and get everybody to feed into the public consultation. Hundreds of letters go in and then the NTA, TII or whoever it is continues with the plan. Rarely do they take these matters into account.

I would caution about this Bill being passed. I first became a councillor in 2003 and was elected in 2004. The council used to run the bins and control the water. What does it do now? All these quangos and ad hocthird party bodies are being created - the HSE, the NTA, etc. It takes political decisions out of the hands of elected people and hands them over to national bodies and the Government can say, "Ah look, you know, NTA took this decision independently. We have to respect it." Do not get me wrong. I am not saying that just because people oppose something, it is not the right thing. I am saying local communities and councillors who know their areas are being sidelined by the likes of this Bill, which is giving more powers to a national body to build infrastructure which, often, the councils used to propose. Then it would be a statutory public consultation, after which a vote would come back to the local council. I do not agree that we should be moving more and more in the current direction.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The central purpose of the Bill is to allow the NTA use its expertise to expand our regional cities' transport services and bring them up to a more uniform standard. The Green Party supports streamlining of services but the purpose of streamlining needs to be to make things more effective. The Government seems to be doing everything in its power to counter any such efficiency effects.

I questioned the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, about this Bill in February and was told it was on the priority publication list for the spring session. Then it was moved to the priority publication list for the summer legislative programme and it was only published in mid May. I am confused as to why this was the case, particularly because at the joint Oireachtas committee I sit on, we decided to waive pre-legislative scrutiny for this legislation in October of last year. That was a decision of Opposition and Government TDs on the committee to move the Bill along in order to support the roll-out of the Cork BusConnects as quickly as possible. When you compare the published Bill to the draft available last year, it seems only 13 words have changed. The Government talks extensively about the €24.3 billion allocated to public transport as part of the national development plan. We have been told this will result in the delivery of, for example, MetroLink by 2035. How does the Government expect the public to believe it can deliver on promises like that when simply altering two sections of this Bill to help the NTA run regional bus services in Cork has taken almost a year? Managing existing public transport services is probably the least ambitious part of the list of public transport plans. If this is any indication of how the Government will proceed, things are looking pretty bleak.

During our time in government, the Green Party introduced or enhanced 180 bus routes for rural areas in just four years. At one stage, a new or enhanced bus route was being launched every single week. That progress has been stalled, the planned routes are being left unfunded and promises to communities all over this country are being broken.

The most immediate impact of this Bill will be felt in the Minister of State's city, Cork, in terms of the delivery of BusConnects. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, said in April of this year that he was acutely aware of public transport concerns in Cork. The Minister of State will know from national newspaper headlines earlier this year that there were nearly 3,000 complaints made about Cork bus services in the year prior to that particular statement. Yet it somehow took a full month for the final approval of this legislation to be provided. That had been sitting on the Minister's desk since August. Some 10% of complaints made about bus services in Cork were made about one route, namely the route serving University College Cork, MTU and Cork University Hospital. That means students, doctors, nurses, patients and family members have been impacted by inaction and by the slowness of the Government's delivery of this legislation.

I do not think that is acceptable. I am sure that as a TD for that area, the Minister of State does not think it is acceptable either. The people deserve an answer about why this particular legislation, which is essential before any of that work on Cork BusConnects can take place, has taken so long.

While I welcome the fact the Bill has finally been published, that question about why so much time has been lost is really important. The Government's Project Ireland 2040 strategy was published in 2018, and it set out that the Cork BusConnects project would be completed by 2027. The phased implementation of the different bus routes was meant to begin by 2023, so we are now three years behind that particular schedule.

In February of this year, the NTA said that if this Bill was enacted, it hoped to submit the first of three packages of strategic transport corridors in Cork - the corridor based in the north of the city - by the end of quarter 2. So, because of the delay in enacting this particular legislation, there is now less than one month left if that particular timeline is going to be met and it is not going to be met. We all know that.

The failure to meet those particular targets does not just impact the delivery of that first package, the corridor in the north of the city, it will have a knock-on impact on the implementation of the other two based in the south of Cork as the NTA's timeframe has these packages placed a further six months after the submission of the first.

I have discussed this matter with my Green Party colleague, Councillor Oliver Moran. He has told me that local representatives are simply not willing to go out and speak to the public in Cork about the timelines that the NTA is giving them because they no longer have confidence in those timelines. They say that they do not trust the NTA to deliver on schedule anymore. Those local representatives have been burned too many times. They have gone out with a timeline, and it has been completely undermined by the lack of action.

There is a lack of clarity on the funding for BusConnects Cork and that is creating a sense that the whole project is in stasis despite the fact there is palpable demand for these services among commuters and there is backing for these services among local representatives as well.

I urge that the Government stops adding to those delays in this area and allows the necessary work to be undertaken for the delivery of BusConnects. It should allow the people who are waiting for these services, those students, nurses, doctors, patients, people from all walks of life who rely on public transport to at least see the potential, a horizon within which a better bus service will be delivered across Cork. Very significant political commitments were made. Timelines were set out. It essential that those timelines are delivered on.

Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I welcome this Bill. While it is a short and technical Bill which we are talking about today, it is also quite significant because it indicates the seriousness with which this Government is treating the need to overhaul our transport infrastructure.

I represent Dublin Rathdown and from Stepaside to Stillorgan and all the various townlands throughout my constituency, including Ballinteer, Cabinteely and Dundrum, I regularly hear from commuters struggling with cramped Luas carriages, ghost buses, disappearing cycle lanes and congested roads. I acknowledge, however, that public transport is improving. For example, more than 55 million passenger journeys were taken on Luas services alone in 2025. I also welcome the consideration of extending the green Luas line along the eastern bypass route and I look forward to seeing how that is developed.

We are on the right track, forgive the pun, but more needs to be done. For example, we need faster delivery. I appreciate that the Government's Critical Infrastructure Bill will make a real difference to these delivery times but we also need to look at other areas of transport to see how we can make a difference. For example, one of the most common issues my constituents contact me about is who they should approach when a transport problem has arisen. When I follow up with them, I also get a similar response from the various State agencies and local authorities, saying that it is not their area of responsibility.

While this Bill is trying to address a key issue of connectivity, responsibility and accountability, we also have existing issues. I ask the Minister to look at how greater administrative and organisational clarity can be provided across the various State agencies.

I hope that by expanding the remit of the NTA in this Bill, it will be a first step in providing that level of clarity because it recognises that we need that greater level of co-ordination. I ask that the Minister looks at reviewing the various transport bodies operating in the greater Dublin area. They have overlapping responsibilities, and they have challenges around co-ordination. Would the Minister consider a single authority for the greater Dublin area?

The NTA certainly partly fulfils its function but many aspects that I have encountered continue to be retained or delegated to various transport providers, oversight bodies and the local authorities. Thus, with so many bodies, co-ordinating and planning becomes harder, and I fear it ultimately risks a poor return for the taxpayer.

Other European cities, for example, operate a single or two-authority approach. In Amsterdam, which is similar-sized city to Dublin in terms of population, the GBB runs the trams, the metros, the ferry and the bus services with cycle paths and open spaces under the authority of a single city local authority. In Dublin, we have four local authorities through which investment in the development of the cycle network via active travel funding is delegated.

Since 2022, nearly €600 million has been invested in these active travel schemes across the four Dublin local authorities and this could reach €1 billion by 2030. However, these schemes have not had the impact that was hoped. The lack of co-ordination may be part of the reason because these schemes were designed to encourage a modal shift that would encourage people to leave the car at home and instead cycle to work, school, shops, friends and family. This would result in two benefits: to reduce the use of motor vehicles to free up the road; and to reduce emissions.

However, there is a distinct lack of evidence that after six years of investment this spend has resulted in either of these objectives being achieved. There are two key reasons for this. I have spoken previously in the Chamber about the complex social and economic barriers to many taking up cycling and making the shift to cycling, and in particular the barriers for women. Women account for just one in four cyclists in Ireland. Only one in five people cycling to work are women. While these challenges can be overcome, and we can certainly encourage our girls and women to enjoy the benefits that cycling provides, as other countries that have a more equal balance between the genders have proven, it is certainly a generational change that will be required, and this will require changes in many areas of society. A recently published paper on why young girls in Ireland do not cycle is titled, It is a Boy's Thing, so we have a significant challenge from a very young age among our young women.

The second reason the active travel scheme has not been as successful as hoped is relevant to this legislation. There has not been an overall strategic and co-ordinated approach to the implementation of these routes. We have had a role out of closed roads, the removal of filter lanes, changed traffic lights sequences and the removal of motor vehicle lanes but never any real consideration what these changes will have on the wider transport network because the traffic does not just disappear. It is diverted, and where is it diverted to is one of the key issues.

Throughout the roll out of these schemes, there has been limited if any engagement with transport providers about how they are going to manage this additional transport. There has been limited, if any, attempt to measure the outcomes on traffic movements and patterns - the actual change in cycle, pedestrian and motor vehicle journeys.

Funding for these schemes is provided to local authorities to implement them but this is resulting in what is effectively a patchwork of cycle improvements with few, if any, connected journeys and a lack of a comprehensive cycling infrastructure within a geographic or townland locality. This results in frustrations being felt by everybody. The cyclists who continue to have broken journeys, with a mixture of safe and unsafe routes, and other road users who can visibly see underutilised cycle lanes while they sit in traffic. The congestion is increasing and, of course, from an emissions point of view, the longer a motorist sits in traffic, the greater the emissions which, again, might explain why we are not seeing a difference in those outcomes.

All of this may explain why the NTA's canal cordon survey, which measures the journeys taken by people on a daily basis, shows that the number of cycle journeys since 2019 are 3,000 fewer. In other words, there are fewer people cycling across the canals than six years ago. All other forms of transport increased. So, again, we do not have an understanding of what is actually going on because we are not really doing the in-depth research around that. Trying to make the right decisions and taking the learnings from all of the spending in the past number of years is important if we are going to ensure that we make these transitions.

We need real data. We need meaningful engagement, and we need effective co-ordination on transport planning. This is essential in order to keep the city moving and to enable people to make the journeys they need to make in our city. This Bill is a small but important step in that overall journey, and I ask the Minister to continue that journey and take on board some of the issues I have highlighted.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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This is a short Bill on paper, but one that carries significant consequences for how transport is planned and delivered across the country. Nobody on this side of the House is against better public transport. Far from it. For far too long, rural Ireland and regions like west Cork have been left behind when it comes to investment in transport infrastructure. People in our communities have been crying out for reliable bus services, safer networks and real connectivity for decades. In principle, any effort to improve delivery and bring investment into the regions is to be welcomed, but - and it is a very big but - we need to be absolutely clear about what the Bill is doing. This legislation hands significant powers to a centralised body, the National Transport Authority, allowing it to step beyond the greater Dublin area and effectively act as a national infrastructure delivery agency. Up until now, the NTA has had these powers primarily in Dublin. This Bill expands that model nationwide. This means that decisions about transport infrastructure in Cork, Kerry, Donegal or anywhere else could increasingly be taken in Dublin offices rather than the local authorities in local communities. That raises serious questions. Infrastructure is not just about roads and bus corridors. It is about people, communities, businesses and local realities. One size does not fit all. What works in central Dublin with a dense population, short travel distances and existing public transport networks does not translate neatly into rural Ireland or regional towns. Will this Bill genuinely deliver balanced regional development or will it simply extend a Dublin-centric model across the country?

We are told that this about efficiency, speeding up delivery and cutting red tape. However, my experience of the NTA is completely the opposite. As a Cork man, it is something that the Minister of State needs to understand. My experience of the NTA is poor. The NTA is poor on delivery. It is poor on communication. It kind of reminds of Uisce Éireann, although I do not think it was like that at one time. It is like it is untouchable. We cannot communicate with it. We cannot make sense.

It is about small things, small improvements and common-sense improvements. I have been on the board of Local Link for 20 years. I never took a brown cent. When people hear the word "board", they think we are all on the coin. I never took a brown cent from it because it delivered. In the past two years, we are delivering nothing to the people. We are looking for a loop in Castletownshend. There is a bus service going down to Castletownshend. People are very happy with that. It is the same with the Mizen one. For the past year and a half, they have been pleading for a loop so that the service could go in one way and out another. It is as simple as that. A child could put it together for the NTA. Will it make a move, though? Will it sit down and talk to people? Not at all. It is above everybody. If we go down to Mizen Head, we are looking for another loop. The bus goes in one way and takes the bus out the same road. We are asking about going in one way and out the other. It is not one foot extra. It takes in about an extra 15 to 20 houses along the route, which would be fantastic, especially for elderly people who do not have a transport service. There was no answer and no movement.

Now, the Government wants to give that same body powers, pat it on the back and tell it to take over more responsibilities so that it can shut the people out. That is not good enough. I do not want to stand here being critical because we did get new services, and we are very glad to have them. It was more than just one or two. There is the one from the Beara. There is the one going down into Kilcrohane and Bantry. They are brilliant services. However, there needs to be a little bit of a door opened where people can talk and resolve issues.

Let us move to the next situation. When I talk about Castletownshend, I am talking about people like Councillor Daniel Sexton, who is getting it in the ear. He is our councillor down there. People are telling him that he cannot deliver, is useless or whatever. All the other councillors are hearing the same thing. It is the same with Councillor Danny Collins down in Kealkill. I cannot understand how the NTA does this. It put forward a tender for Dunmanway, Clonakilty, Grange and Timoleague. Tenders were put out and got back. Prices were got, but it was a case of saying "Sorry" because there was no money. In the name of God, it is like going to the shop to buy a bag of spuds and having no money in your pocket. You would not go to the shop. You would stay at home. It is the very same situation in Kealkill, Bantry and Macroom. Tenders were sought and got, but then there was no money. It was like a farce. That is not the way to treat people. The people of Kealkill have no bus service. The people of Grange have no bus service. The people of Timoleague are begging for a service. The people of Castlestownshend and the Mizen want to change the service and make slight changes.

The NTA needs to sit down with the local board. It cannot sit down with everybody, and I accept that. At the very least, it could sit down with a local politician - good God Almighty, we are elected to do something for our people - and give answers. If it does not have the money now, I do not know why it put out a tender for something, but it can say that it will in two or three months. God Almighty, it a closed door because every time it does that, it will have to retender because of the way things are going with fuel and everything. Things have become much more expensive.

It comes down to the Bantry, Kealkill and Macroom councillor, Danny Collins, getting it in the neck, and myself as a public representative. Our job is to reply and to fight for those services because these people have not got an existing transport service. That is because the Government made promises beyond its reach. It should not have done that. It has to come back, and somebody has to sit down and say that a mistake was made but that they will rectify that in a month's time. At this present time, though, it is not being rectified.

I have talked to people in Mayo. I talked to Councillor Chris Maxwell. He told me that the Killeen-Killadoon section needs to be reinstated on the Westport-Louisburgh-Killeen-Killadoon bus route. That section has been discontinued. Again, it is a huge inconvenience to people. It is like giving a dog a bone and pulling it away from them. It is going to agitate people, so why does the Government do these things?

My concern is that, reading the Bill, the Government wants to give the NTA more powers. More powers to do what? To tell people that they cannot have a service? We have to look beyond the usual "No, no, no" to "Maybe". We can look at places like Drinagh, Caheragh and Kealkill. They have no service. However, there is a service coming very close to them. I said to the NTA that instead of creating a new service, it could maybe extend the service a little here and a little there and cut out costs. I can see costs. I hate to say the word "shot", but I could be for saying this. The Killarney to Skibbereen service is being used during the summer, but I sometimes wonder whether its frequency is as necessary in the winter. There can be cuts. I would not be one bit ashamed to sit down and say we should look at the numbers. However, let us deliver a proper service to people who do need it because Kealkill's is a desperate service. It has nothing. I met the residents there. People in Drinagh and Caheragh have no service. It is a terrible situation to be in that they cannot see a bus pass their doors. I have lived in that situation for long enough on the Mizen Peninsula. There were little or no services. Now, there are great services. I commend the people who delivered that. The bottom line is that more can be done, though. Unfortunately, nobody wants to sit down and talk to us. I have my councillors pleading with me to try to deliver.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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I would meet the Deputy any time.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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I am not blaming the Minister of State. He is not the NTA. I will sit down with him, though. God Almighty, I would be delighted to do that. I appreciate his offer. I take-----

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy never came to me once.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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I am onto the NTA. I am on the board. I should not have to come to the Minister of State. I am there as a volunteer to deliver for people through the right channels, not to be running to the Minister of State's door every five minutes. I will go to the Minister of State, though. I appreciate that and anyone who offers an open door. I am not coming here to criticise. I am coming here to create solutions. There are solutions there. There is not a need to be blowing a budget here and there because we cannot get every little corner in the country serviced. I respect that. However, the corners that can be serviced with the service that is already there need to be looked into. The Minister of State said his door was open, but the problem is that the door of the NTA is rammed shut. There is something up against it because we cannot open it and cannot get a discussion open on little loops to further enhance a service that is already in existence or answers to the questions about why it tendered for Dunmanway, Clonakilty, Grange and Timoleague and could not deliver. Why did it tender for Bantry, Kealkill and Macroom if it could not deliver? That is wrong. That has to be overturned and looked at.

I plead with the Minister of State to look at the Castlestownhend loop and the Mizen loop because, while I will not say I have given up, I have banged so much on that door that my knuckles are worn. The NTA is not listening and will not open that door. I want to meet with it. As I am a member, I want to bring it before the transport committee to answer questions. However, that is not the way it should happen. There should be dialogue between the public representatives and the system that we have, which is the NTA. Now, the Government wants to give it more powers. I am very concerned about giving it more liberty and power when it cannot cope with the power that it has at the moment. I ask the Minister of State to look at those areas that I spoke about. I am not trying to throw a spanner in the works and say that everything is negative, but there is certainty a lot of frustration out there about services that were promised and not delivered and others that could be issued or extended.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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There is the issue in the legislation itself, there is the bigger picture nationally and then of course there are the more parochial local issues. I am not quite sure, but I know I have been shifted around in the speaking rota so I will deal with the local issues first in case I have to cede the time later on in the discussion and, if not, I will use it to elaborate on the bigger issues. The Government is talking about widening the NTA's remit across the country. I have an issue with the NTA's remit here in Dublin that I have mentioned before. One of the questions on my Bus Correct survey of two years ago was whether or not the NTA should be managed more directly and, in a Dublin context, that would be from a directly elected mayor. This is casting no aspersions on the staff working in the NTA, who I acknowledge are dedicated, but as an institution and organisation the NTA is not fit for purpose. It is not fit for reflecting the views expressed to it by individuals collating all that information. So far with BusConnects I have found that it is discriminating against people with disabilities and older people with bus passes. They are the ones who are least able to hop on, hop off and use the apps. Maybe the hope is that by the time the whole thing rolls out they will have died out, which I think would be quite a cynical approach. If we look at people with disabilities for example, at the moment usually only one wheelchair can fit on a bus. It is hugely discommoding for someone to have to get off a bus and try to get another wheelchair-accessible bus to get from A to B, when they were able to do that in one go originally.

Similarly with older people, I have used the app and in some cases it is faster to get from A to B by timing stuff and looking at maps and when it works, it works well. As I have said before as well, when BusConnects rolls out and if it is properly staffed, people in my survey expressed confidence that it would work quite well and when it was rolled out and properly staffed, it would be like the London Underground, but overground. However, it is not working like that at all. That is because of buses not turning up and staff shortages. Every time a new route is put on an existing route has to be robbed from. People have not faith in the process or that the spine routes will have enough capacity. On the one hand, I have people involved in Dublin Bus telling me that the company could put an auxiliary route on halfway along to catch up where buses are already full. Then the NTA comes back and says that it will allow that but if it happens two or three days on an ongoing basis, a full route will have to be provided. That is not necessarily workable because those auxiliary buses are there for specific instances, particularly with all the hybrid working right now, and when we add in concerts, school events, weekend events, etc. There needs to be the flexibility of an auxiliary service whereby if people are waiting too long, an auxiliary bus can be started halfway along a route. At the same time, there are L buses that are not turning up, so what is supposed to be a half-hourly service turns into an hourly service. In Lucan we have a number of GAA clubs, one of which is Garda Westmanstown Gaels, located between Lucan and Clonsilla. If the L52 does not turn up and people are trying to go to training, for example, they are stuck. The traffic along that route between Clonsilla and Lucan is a nightmare at the best of times, but particularly at peak time in the evenings when people are trying to get somewhere.

With another GAA club, Lucan Sarsfields, it is different in that there is not a bus route in the first place. People have no choice but to drive there. I do not want to get into mentioning specific routes that have problems but I could list some, such as the 13, about which people have expressed views. The 80 is a temporary solution and we will be back arguing what is going to happen with the 80 in a couple of months time. There are issues with the L51 and L52 not turning up. We have issues with the C spines. We have an issue in Adamstown where, because of delays, the NTA ran a route down Adamstown Boulevard for two years as a temporary route, pending finding another temporary route that is going closer to the long-term route. Meanwhile, they have built another 5,000 houses and people are wondering why they cannot have that route along the boulevard. From Adamstown Station, along Adamstown Boulevard there could be a reconstituted 25 route through the village and into town.

In essence, there is no response to the needs of users when they express their frustration at the bus service. That is what I mean when I say the NTA is not fit for purpose. A directly elected mayor for the greater Dublin area or for Dublin could look at these issues, take on board what people are saying, respond and, if a mistake is made, adjust it again. The NTA seems to be coming from a position of it knowing what is best. It does not, because if it did people would not be cheesed off constantly.

That brings me to the bigger national issue in terms of what we need to be doing for routes. I am not from a rural constituency, but in the lifetime of the previous Government we had a massive roll-out of rural Local Link services, which seems to have slowed down a little bit now. I am all for people being able to live in the rural communities they grew up in. I am also supportive of bringing some of the population from hard-pressed areas like Dublin to rural areas. I have mentioned before that in terms of policy for the software and pharmaceutical industries we could have a golden triangle between Tullamore, Mullingar and Athlone. There are lots of small towns and villages around there that could do with a few extra students for schools. West of the Shannon the same thing could apply with hybrid working or community working hubs where people should be able to get a local bus along a route and work from home some of the time and repopulate the areas where the schools are losing teachers. While the population nationally and in major urban centres is going up, it is falling in rural areas. We need to support rural Ireland with a transport system that works. In one of my first speeches during my first term as a TD I remarked on how the train network in the 1950s was massively bigger than it is now. There is no reason in the world why we should not be building that rail gauge as well and focusing on that type of investment.

I want to refer to our planning laws. In south Dublin, the Government wants to be seen to be doing something about the housing crisis. In an area of south Dublin there is zoning for 56,000 housing units, with 12,000 with planning applications in situ. The Government is now proposing another 9,000 units in areas such as Lucan, where we have a massive number of houses yet to be built in areas like Clonburris and Adamstown, where people cannot get basic amenities like parking spaces and where there is no solution for putting in a cable to charge an EV. People are told not to worry about it because they are right beside a train station. It is not utopia. Deputy Shane Moynihan had a go at me on "The Late Debate" for saying that in 20 years these are going to be ghettos. I did not say that because they are badly built but because if there are not amenities and infrastructure and a proper 15-minute city where people can walk and have all the facilities beside each other, it is going to create social unrest. In Adamstown we have a related policy where my proposal for a department store was turned down by South Dublin County Council because it would upset the retail hierarchy of Liffey Valley and Tallaght. Therefore, people have to get the bus to Liffey Valley to do their shopping, or a lot of the time they have to drive because they cannot rely on the bus turning up. Transport and planning are absolutely interlinked.

I have not got absolute clarity on it but I know there is a plan to upgrade the grid for the DART+ South West but I am not absolutely sure. I have put in a few parliamentary questions about when that grid capacity will be guaranteed as well as the funding for the DART+ South West. Until the Government provides that service to cater for the existing planned extra 10,000 houses between Lucan and Clondalkin it cannot talk about rezoning more land and creating more unsustainable areas. Similarly, the Luas for Lucan was originally supposed to be completed by now. Now, however, looking at the renewed emerging preferred route it will not be completed until 2036. We are living in a public transport desert where people do not have sufficient access to get around the greater Dublin area in the way that is required. People can go in and out of town and I acknowledge there have been improvements between Blanchardstown, Lucan, Clondalkin and Tallaght, but we do not have enough of the critical short-term routes that are reliable so that people will say, "You know what, I will put the kids on the bus and we will go to the crèche that way," or, "I know I can get to work reliably, I will drop them off en route and get back on within the 90-minute plan."

It has not worked and we need more direct political control along with independent analysis of the services to make sure we have something that is fit for purpose.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this. I had been a county councillor for 11 years back in 2010 when Government expanded the DTA to become the NTA. I may have the dates wrong but I am roughly right. This Bill provides a big opportunity. I agree with a lot of what the previous speaker said. There is a real democratic deficit when it comes to the NTA. I suspect the public view of the NTA is not hugely positive. I want to defend it by saying that very often when its schemes are completed the furore calms down and people say actually that is a good piece of work. I was at Parnell Park on Sunday to watch the Dubs in the hurling match. I went out the cycleway, the Fairview one. That road has sufficient width and there is room for everybody. It has a cycle track, a dedicated bus lane and traffic lanes with the same on the other side of the road. It is an excellent piece of work. There were a lot of eggs broken making that omelette, but it is a bespoke piece of infrastructure.

Back in 2010 the Dublin transportation office was all about bus rapid transit. Those are the bendy buses as the Dubs called them. They are to be seen everywhere in Europe. They are in Belfast and Derry. I remember putting around a leaflet in the 2009 local election campaign, proud as punch that this was the next piece of infrastructure that was going to come in. Then the DTA became the NTA. God knows how much money was spent on the bus rapid transit. Bendy buses disappeared because people would be standing too long in them. The people in the NTA then came back to the double decker buses without the central door - they previously had the double decker buses with the centre door. Then they bought a fleet of buses without the centre door. A few years later they decided they liked the centre door and they did away with the buses without the centre door. Then they had the bus pull-ins at bus stops. Then they decided they did not want the bus pull-ins at bus stops and did away with the bus pull-ins. They cannot make up their minds. It leads to an impression that they do not know what they are doing sometimes. That is terribly disparaging for the really good engineers who work there, men and women, and there are some fine people.

They also engage in a lot of desktop stuff which wastes a colossal amount of public money. What Deputy Gogarty said is right. They come before a transport committee. Time is limited to five or six minutes for those on the committee - I am not on the transport committee. Then they come to do a public session in Buswells and we get to have a few minutes from an official. A senior official in the NTA said to me with a wry smile, “You’re the Deputy who writes all the letters.” I was really taken aback and said, “Actually it’s my job to do it. Let it pass.” There is not an adequate mechanism for public representatives to liaise with the NTA. Whose fault is that? It is Fianna Fáil’s and Fine Gael’s fault because we created the legislation. It was also the fault of the Green Party the last time. The Minister has an opportunity to do something to rectify this now and build in something really democratic.

We have all experienced what happens. When a scheme comes in, county councillors on the ground say it is not down to them because it is Government policy. TDs say that actually the council designed it. Everybody is fobbing off responsibility. The public wake up and the first they hear about a scheme is when they see the diggers in the road and they want to know who decided it, who voted for it, who is responsible for it and who they can talk to about it. Everybody is running a mile from it because there is not an identifiable structure. I do not know who is responsible for the schemes. I know the council designed it. When I was a councillor, I know they all had to go out to full Part 8. There is this section 156 which seems to replace that so there is only minor consultation about it. The public consultation of local authorities is just not comprehensive enough. There need to be genuine public meetings properly set up and properly advertised.

I will give one example. I have said this to the NTA. I could speak for an hour on this, as most of my colleagues could. The active travel scheme involves walking and cycling. My area has a number of active travel schemes that are really good but they have resulted in impeding the movement of public transport. I remember having a conversation with an engineer and asked what side of the NTA they were talking to and they said it was active travel. I asked if they had spoken to the BusConnects side. They said they had not because their budget was coming from active travel. It is still the same road space.

I will finish with this. Way back in the day there was a road that we, as councillors, called the green route because it was drawn in green on a map. It connected the N81, which is the Tallaght bypass, all the way out parallel to the M50 to Leopardstown. There was sufficient road width and public realm space for 95% of that route to actually create a connection between the red Luas line and the green Luas line. In the absence of funding for that, there was still sufficient road width to put cycle lanes on either side of the road, proper bus corridors and actually landscape them really nicely. The bus corridor could have been behind trees and not just purely on the road. On some stretches of it there is a double cycle track, then it meets a cycle track on one side of the road and a cycle track on the other side of the road. All I know is this: they have gobbled up the space that could be used for a dedicated bus corridor from the Tallaght bypass to Leopardstown at a time when the M50 is saturated with traffic - a parallel public transport route. It makes no sense to me and I do not understand it.

Here is probably our one opportunity in this term to give public representatives and the public a real voice in how the NTA does its business.

John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I cannot say that I did not have concerns about this Bill when I noted it on the summer legislative agenda. Perhaps it was a misunderstanding of its intention. As I had read it, my concept was that this was a further centralising of the decision-making process on transport policy by the NTA at the expense of local authority members. The Minister, Deputy O’Brien, has assured me that is not the intention of the change and that will not be its impact, which I welcome. However, I have to speak from a regional perspective. In Galway when we debate transport policy and transport infrastructure projects, I cannot help feeling at times that Galway is an afterthought for the NTA. Maybe people from other regional cities think similarly. Maybe people from Dublin think that too much of the NTA time focuses on the regional cities. I have often thought that it might be an idea to have two separate authorities, one transport authority for the greater Dublin region and one for the regional cities.

I share some of the concerns that I have heard expressed by other Members, including Deputy Lahart before me. We only have this opportunity to get this right and we should use it to make sure that we do that. One of the things that is notable about the existing 2008 legislation creating the Dublin Transport Authority, subsequently the National Transport Authority, is that one of the members of the NTA board is the CEO of Dublin City Council. While that is probably appropriate, the same opportunity is not presented to the CEO of Cork City Council, Galway City Council or Limerick City and County Council. While that may not have any significant meaning, the inference could be that Dublin gets greater priority from the NTA than the regional cities. We should do everything we can to ensure that is not the case and that it is not even inferred by the operation of the NTA.

I got some good news yesterday regarding transport planning in Galway, that the NTA has commenced the development of the Galway metropolitan area transport strategy. It is the only city that has not had its transport strategy reviewed since 2016. That decision was made based on the fact that a central part of the transport strategy, the Galway city ring road, had not been decided upon - the planning process had not been completed. That was completed last night and now we are moving on to develop a transport strategy in Galway with that as a focus or a central part of it.

I think it will start with a review of the existing Galway transport strategy. Unfortunately, the reality is that review will show that much of what was planned in the 2016 strategy has been unfulfilled. Other than the redevelopment of Ceannt Station with the development of the five platforms there and a number of active travel measures across the city, we have not seen significant development of transport or public transport infrastructure in Galway city.

I will provide an example of how frustrating this can be for members of a local authority when feel they have some input into the transport policy of the local authority. In October 2022, which is coming up on four years ago, when I was as a member of the local authority, I first received a presentation from the Galway park and ride strategy team. It was done via Zoom because the team was based in Dublin. It presented us with what the park and ride strategy for Galway city would be. It included the development of park and ride facilities on the N83, north of Claregalway; on the N6, which is the Galway-Dublin road; and at Oranmore train station. They were seen as the sites that would be prioritised. Four years later, however, we have yet to see land purchased for the facilities on the N83 or the N6. We are also yet to see the planning application being made to extend the car parking provision at Oranmore train station. It is deeply frustrating.

We have since seen the policy changed somewhat, which I welcome. There is now a proposal to develop a park and ride facility on the western side of the city on the end of the Western Distributor Road. That is welcome. However, to highlight something Deputy Lahart spoke about, there is a lack of co-ordination with regard to the relationship between the NTA and the local authority, and even within the NTA itself. There is no bus priority measure from that park and ride site on the west of the city. The bus will leave the park and ride facility and join regular traffic. I cannot see the public accepting or using that. The most bizarre part of the story is that the NTA brought forward and completed a Part 8 planning process for active travel cycle lanes on that same road. It should and could have developed bus priority measures along the same road to ensure that the park and ride facility would be used by the public. I cannot understand how the Part 8 was brought forward for cycle lanes but not for bus priority. It is not that I oppose the cycles lanes - I welcome them - but, as Deputy Lahart said, there seems to be a lack of co-ordination between active travel and public transport within the NTA.

There is one part of the city I must mention in the context of Galway’s bus strategy, namely, the Upper Ballymoneen Road. It needs a bus turning bay, which is a simple provision. I ask the Minister of State to look at that.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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The Government has failed consistently in the delivery of transport infrastructure. Projects experience delays, costs mount and progress occurs at a snail’s pace. I am proud to have been representing the people of Limerick in this House for over a decade. It has been the honour of my life. I tend to travel to Dublin by public transport, most regularly by train. Upon arriving in Dublin, I mostly use public transport to get to Leinster House. What I notice most – I am sure other Deputies will concur - is the contrast in provision of public transport in Dublin compared to Limerick. In Limerick, like many other counties, public transport provision is inadequate and forces people to depend on their car to commute. In Limerick, one will find buses serving roads with no bus infrastructure or no buses serving an area with bus infrastructure. One such area of Limerick is the Condell Road. There are approximately 400 houses and apartments and all the infrastructure for bus services along this road. The bus lane was put in when I was on the council, which is over ten years ago. It has bus lanes and bus shelters, but there is still no local bus service in the area, which is a farcical situation for those living there. Many of those people do not have cars. Not everyone has the luxury of having their own personal vehicle. Hundreds of people live in this urban area with no functioning public transport route.

The Limerick-Shannon metropolitan area transport strategy, LSMATS, was published in December 2022, an ambitious 20-year strategy to deliver sustainable public transport infrastructure for the region. It had great promise. Initial drafts included a commitment to the delivery of the long sought-after northern distributor road, which has been acknowledged as being crucial for the development of the entire region. Indeed, the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, a Fine Gael party colleague of the Minister of State and my constituency colleague, said in 2021:

The Northern Distributor Road is a key piece of road infrastructure for Limerick and is vital for balanced connectivity and development across our city, including the provision of public bus transportation links.

Yet, when the strategy was published, the northern distributor road was a glaring omission from the document, as it was from the national development plan.

Recently, the Coonagh to Knockalisheen Distributor Road, which some consider the first section of a northern distributor road, was opened. It is only partially built. The first two sections are done and they have had a huge positive impact already on the traffic on the north side of Limerick city. I was on that road yesterday, as was Deputy Toole, whom I see sitting in the Chamber. It allowed us to get from Moyross to Dooradoyle in under ten minutes, which would have been inconceivable years ago. It is ridiculous, however, that some who live on the north side of such a small city must get two buses if they are studying at the University of Limerick or working in the adjacent technology park. If this Bill is passed, I hope this project can be considered and implemented.

That is only one of a list of problems with public transport in Limerick, however. Perhaps the next most important issue is the delivery of BusConnects. We are already seeing a four-year delay in the delivery of BusConnects. It is impacting the economic development and liveability of Limerick. Every time we look for an improvement in bus services, we are told we have to wait for BusConnects to be done. Many times in this Chamber I have raised issues about University Hospital Limerick and the growing population in Limerick and the wider mid-west region. The growth in population also makes the delivery of a functional, affordable and reliable public transport system critical. Limerick BusConnects has the potential to transform connectivity within the city and its suburbs, improving access to employment and education while reducing congestion and delivering on commitments to sustainability. Yet, we see no desire to provide the urgently needed funding for BusConnects in Limerick. If we have to wait for BusConnects, I ask the Minister of State and others to intervene to ensure that we have a bus on the Condell Road. People living there must have some sort of access to public transport because, at the moment, their nearest public transport option is approximately 30 minutes walk away. Many of them have small children and do not own cars.

Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent)
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I preface my remarks about public transport in Meath East and my reservations about the extension of the remit of the National Transport Authority by commending the individual staff members across all ranks within the National Transport Authority, Bus Éireann and Irish Rail, as applicable to County Meath. However, I will list off the following reservations. I could probably echo everything that Deputies Gogarty and Lahart said.

As County Meath is a rural county, albeit one under strong urban influence, I will provide some rural context to the debate. Last week, Oireachtas Members received a briefing from the senior management team of Meath County Council. Our population, as per the 2022 census, stood at 220,000 people. A total of 60,834 drove to work, while 4,959 went to work by bus and a further 1,241 travelled to work by train. I do not have the exact figures for 2026 but we know that the county’s growth was 13%. In my municipal district of Ratoath, coupled with Ashbourne, the population growth has been closer to 30%, hence why I said the area is under strong urban influence. If we also take into account decarbonisation zones, of which there are nine in Meath, the top contributor to carbon emissions across the board is transport. It would, therefore, strike one as being a no-brainer to optimise our public transport offering in County Meath, particularly in the areas of increasing population and those closest to the city.

I welcome the announcement last week of the preferred option route for the Navan rail line. There are plenty of opportunities in that regard, even through the public consultation. I know, having met some of the currently impacted landowners, that there will be some constructive solutions coming forward in that regard. We absolutely have to aim for the best offering to reach the widest number of residents in the county, particularly for those who commute out of the county and, more importantly, for that increasing number of people commuting into our relatively new FDI companies that have located in the county.

I will provide some context as to where I am going with this. Primarily, I have a major concern about the expansion of the remit of the NTA because we have some legacy issues where the public transport offering is not keeping pace with the growth of the county and the needs of residents. Even on social media as it stands, we have residents raising their concerns about their commute and whether they will relocate. I try to be solution-focused. Since 2016, I started the process of meetings with Bus Éireann.

In 2018, we added the NTA to those meetings. Everybody was courteous, lots of solutions were put forward and there was listening and hearing to some degree, but what need now in County Meath is action.

We are very aware of Bus Éireann and the recruitment issues that beleaguered the organisation up to quite recently. It informed me a couple of months ago that drivers and mechanics have been recruited but that a fleet is now required. I am concerned that the NTA focus tends to be myopic. I get off the bus on O'Connell Street and walk up to Leinster House at the beginning of the day and do the reverse in the evening. I have to say that I seriously envy this city in the context of the fleet of very young vehicles that traverse it. I might get on to a groaning, creaking 171 or 161 to get back home to County Meath. There is definitely room for improvement in that regard.

We welcome the extension of the bus corridor to the M3 Parkway and the announcement of the increase in rail services. That will be a game-changer. On the bus in the morning, I might take a photo of the traffic backed up along by Kepak. At that stage, I am usually sitting on the bridge in Clonee wondering if I will make the disability matters committee meeting at 9.30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning. I might frantically send a text ahead, run a bit and walk a bit along O'Connell Street in order to get in here on time. The reason is the traffic jams and the fact that certain buses do not show up. A simple example is USB faults on some buses, some of which were off the road for two days as a result of the turnaround time and the knock-on effects.

My concerns are well founded. Before going out to the other urban conurbations, can we please get County Meath up to scratch? About three years ago, I carried out a survey. We are looking for a link bus to the M3 Parkway. We received 1,200 signatures of known persons within 36 hours, so there is massive need for that service. Park-and-ride facilities fall under the remit of the NTA. A great deal of work is being done in that regard, but I caution as to whether we could have park-and-ride facilities to the north of Ashbourne, Ratoath and Dunshaughlin in particular, because the traffic through Meath is funnelled from Cavan, south Monaghan and parts of Louth.

It is no longer the spoke effect of travel directly to the city centre. We have travel east and west to workplaces in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Fingal. Transport options need to reflect that movement of people. The 109A service to Dublin Airport and, very importantly, Dublin City University has been seriously curtailed. Students under pressure to make exams or lectures are having to get off buses in Phibsboro and switch over if the 109 or the 103 are running late, as they invariably are through no fault of the drivers involved. The delays are caused by traffic congestion. It is a chicken-and-egg situation. If the service is provided to and from Meath, commuters will use it. It will take more vehicles off the road and the congestion, air quality and all of the other issues will be alleviated.

In the area of complaints and customer feedback, Liz who works with me suggested to the NTA something which we see in other jurisdictions, namely a simple QR code at a bus stop that can be scanned. Otherwise, people have to log on to the TFI website, which is cumbersome. People are worried at that point as to whether they should run for the train at the M3 Parkway or hitch a lift. I have often gone with two or three people when we have been left behind, put them into my car and told them to text their parents to say they were with me and that we were heading for the train. If there was a QR code at the bus stop and on the buses, that would seriously improve the real time situation and feed into the app we all use.

On tap on, tap off, are we seriously talking about tit being three years away? If you visit the UK or France and do not have an Oyster card or a Lignes d'Azur card, you can take out your bank card and tap on. I know there are limitations to importing Leap information but all of these simple things will encourage customer buy-in.

As a member of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, it would be completely remiss of me not to flag the most serious issue. I refer here, and I stand to be corrected, to the breach of Article 9 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to live well within their communities. That is not really feasible if they have to give 24 hours of advanced notice to order their seat on the bus. A bus may come along that does not have the dropped floor or the bus stop - which I know is the remit of the local authority - is not sufficient to equalise the levels for them to alight the bus. There are simple solutions on offer in this regard.

For active and sustainable travel, funding is required for Ratoath and Dunshaughlin to ensure pedestrian safety and to slow vehicles. Walkability audits were carried out two or three years ago. Funding for that would be very welcome. I implore the Ministers of State, Deputies Buttimer and Canney, and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, to ensure that Meath's public transport options are expanded and optimised before the remit of the NTA is expanded.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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Aontaím le go leor rudaí is a bhí an Teachta Toole ag rá, go háirithe maidir le daoine faoi mhíchumas. Tá sé an-tábhachtach go mbíonn muid ag smaoineamh faoi na daoine sin. The Minister of State is aware of the work of Ciarán Delaney in Cork. In Dublin, bíonn go leor daoine faoi mhíchumas ag cur glaoch ar m’oifig. Is é an rud is uafásaí ná a bheith ag éisteacht leis na scéalta sin, go háirithe nuair a mhíníonn siad go raibh siad ag iarraidh dul chun na hoibre an lá sin, but the bus came and there was already someone on it with a pram. As a result, I could not get on. They are working. There are times people should move or when there is already one person on board. I welcome the announcement that there will be two or three spots for people with disabilities. As my colleague mentioned, it is very important.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. Before I begin criticising the NTA, I want to compliment a member of Dublin Bus. I recently submitted a query. I had response back within 12 hours that I was able to give it to a very happy constituent. I compliment the CEO of Dublin Bus for that response and for coming out to the area behind Clontarf bus depot. It has been the site of absolute destruction for the past number of years. There was an issue as to whether Dublin City Council or Bus Éireann owned the land. It is now confirmed Dublin City Council owns it, so I look forward to getting the area dealt with.

On the Bill, BusConnects has been changing a lot of parts of this city and other cities. I support the extension of the NTA but there are limitations to how much I support it in the sense of how many imperfections there are currently. We need to deliver for those people.

To go back to what I said at the start, it is not acceptable that we do not have a transport system that is fully accessible. A lot of great work has been done but to give people with disabilities complete support, we have to have a public transport system they can trust. I was in Switzerland recently and I saw how accessible public transport can and should be. On the broader issue of accessibility, if the Bill is going to mean anything, it has to not only be for people who are able bodied but also for people who cannot access every single aspect of our society that is private. We should provide them with a public service they can access; a public transport system for everyone.

Another issue I find with the NTA, which has been mentioned by multiple Deputies, is the Leap card system. I know money has been invested in the current plan, but I urge the Minister of State to re-examine it. I am a mechanical engineer, not an electronic engineer, but I have asked my friends if a system could be used for the phone to mimic the ETF from the Leap card. Such a system would be much quicker. The officials from the Department are looking at me. They probably have a good answer in respect of that matter. I tabled a few parliamentary questions in respect of it.

I asked if the National Transport Authority determined that the existing Leap card validator and ticketing infrastructure could not support direct contactless payment by bank card or mobile phone simulations, if any technical or operational assessment had been carried out in this regard, and if the Minister would make a statement on the matter. I received a response but it did not really address the question that I asked, so I have submitted another one.

What is most frustrating for members of the public - it happens to me when I am going to get the bus home - is that none of us has cash anymore. If you do not have one, or if you forget your Leap card, you have to go and get cash out. I do not carry a wallet. Where are you going to go? You are nearly forced to go into the put to get cash back. It is not good for the Irish people. We need to look into this, especially because of where the 130 stop is.

We need to look at making it accessible not only for those with disabilities but also for everyone to encourage them to use public transport. People are like water. They go the fastest route. If you are on the way home, and you see that you can get on the bus, use your phone, tap it and get on, why would you not do it? It would be a lot simpler.

The Leap card system needs to be examined. When I was starting school, it was revolutionary, that is, you did not have to have 65 cent for the bus. The fare has gone up a good bit since then. What is the timeline for the full contactless integration across the network and what is the plan to ensure that every bus stop and every route will enable contactless payment because if we are to extend this NTA framework to Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, Meath, Westmeath and all those places outside the M50 the free travel scheme is another area that we need to examine? People are constantly asking me this on the doorstep so I would like if the Department could issue a statement on it. I understand that there has been money invested in another alternative but I would ask that we stop and re-examine alternatives that other countries have done. The Minister of State will be aware I always want to be constructive and to offer solutions so I would like that to be examined.

I want to highlight the BusConnects issues that have been brought to my attention by residents in Marino whose bus route was recently changed, particularly by the elderly, children and young adults with disabilities who have a set routine. They have learnt that set routine and without any consultation with them, their bus route terminal changed. If a person has learned that set routine of getting into town every day and does not like changes in their routine, that specific small change could really affect that person. Also, the elderly people are now going down an unfamiliar route. Anyone is vulnerable and is not used to the end and I would like that to be examined. I understand there are huge changes on St. Stephen's Green and the NTA will have to reroute some of these routes, but I would like it to be examined.

Another issue I would like to highlight is the recent maritime festival in Howth in north Dublin. We knew there would be thousands of people there. Every year there are thousands of people there but it was like people were going for a meet and greet in the DART - going to see Santa outside. There were four lines of people waiting to get the only DART out of Binn Éadair. If we have a causation and clear data that people will be in the area, can we not make the DART more frequent or offer a more frequent shuttle bus out?

The Bill has the potential - I am a cautious optimist - to be a step forward for the whole country but I also believe we need to hold the NTA and all of the transport authorities to account to ensure that was is promised is delivered. I welcome the recent statements. The response back from the Oireachtas NTA-line has definitely got faster but public representatives, councillors and TDs need to have more of a say on the changes to their constituency.

On transport, I would appreciate an update on the toll bridge crossing between the northside and the southside. Can it be made contactless? Are there plans for that? It is one of the biggest bottlenecks in the city, particularly for my constituents in north Dublin who are trying to cross the Liffey. They still have to wait and pay a toll that has paid the bridge off multiple times. I know I am starting to sound like a man who normally sits here but it makes sense. We need to look into contactless payments. Clearly there is a bottleneck over the Liffey, from the northside to the southside. If we could remove that toll on that bridge, it would really speed up things in the city.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank all the Members for their contributions. It is incumbent on all of us that we would encourage people to use public transport. Based on the debate tonight, some of the suggestions and solutions from the contributions are ways in which we can enhance our public transport offering but also attract more people to partake in public transport. I found the debate interesting and invigorating. A bit like the coffee, it was frank and honest, and we got the good and the bad. It was without the milk and without the sugar at times but it was important to hear it. Those of us who have been on public transport will understand the frustrations of many, and the articulation of the frustrations of the travelling public by many in the Chamber tonight, based on their experiences. It is something we must reflect upon. I am sure the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and I, and others in the Department, will parse through the contributions.

I reassure Members that Government is committed to investing in public transport outside of Dublin. As somebody who lives outside Dublin, like the Ceann Comhairle, there is life beyond the M50, as Deputy Pa Daly will know well. It is important that we have, under the national transport development plan, balanced investment in the regions but also in a variety of modes of transport. We saw the report today about jobs and AI. If we are to be serious about economic competitiveness and our population growth, we need to have investment in public transport. To remind Members in the House, because sometimes they might not hear this articulated, the national development plan and the sectoral investment plan for transport has €24 billion in funding of projects nationwide.

I reiterate that I accept the frustrations articulated and spoken about in the Chamber tonight. We have a four-year plan for transport investment. It is an ambitious programme of investment in infrastructure and services that reflects Government's determination to build a transport system which is efficient and low-carbon but also responsive to the evolving needs of the travelling public, and also based on our economic needs.

In listening to some of the contributions, I take the point in terms of accountability. There is a real need for accountability around the NTA, which does very good work. Deputy Lahart made a very good point that when you take away the beginning, the middle and the end of the schemes we all refer to, some of the outcomes are quite good and we see a huge improvement. What we all, as politicians and public representatives, share is that democratic deficit that perhaps sometimes we feel we are not being listened to by the NTA. That is why the communication piece is so important. That is why the clear and cogent articulation of the plan, where we are going and how we are going to get there is important. I cannot remember who said that the good engineers with the desktop and modelling sometimes drive us all to the point of distraction. All of us, who have been members of local authorities, recognise the importance of the Part 8 - that transparent piece. With the NTA, that public consultation cannot just be a box-ticking exercise. It has to be meaningful and real. The overarching theme I got tonight was the importance of listening.

There is another point I would make as a practising politician. I was smiling at Deputy Ó Laoghaire, who made reference to Bishopstown and Highfield. As a former chairman of Bishopstown GAA club, I will come back to that. Deputy Pa Daly is smiling at me. The first iteration of the plan for the Luas for Cork did not go through public open space in terms of green areas or the much-cherished sporting recreation grounds of Bishopstown, Highfield and our local schools. Those of us who are long-time politicians will ask why there was a change in the first iteration when to all of us there was no demonstrative need to change it at all. That is why public consultation is important. Notwithstanding the events in Killarney at the weekend, Government is committed.

Part of the Bill deals with Cork, the fastest growing urban area. Population growth of between 50% and 60% is envisaged there by 2040. This is not just about funding being allocated for transport projects; it is also about real delivery in the context of the national development plan for transport, including projects such as the Cork to Limerick motorway, the Castlemartyr and Killeagh bypasses, the M28 to Ringaskiddy and Great Island connectivity. It will also require the Luas and BusConnects for Cork to be developed. The Bill will help to deliver better bus services and improved public transport for Cork.

I say genuinely that Bus Éireann must improve in terms of its provision of public transport in the city and the suburbs of Cork. People want BusConnects to succeed. The people of Cork want a bus system that delivers in terms of frequency of service and better reliability, safer walking and cycling routes and improved connectivity with the airport and the suburbs. We are entering a critical phase of delivery. That is why the next four years will be transformative.

I hear the frustration of many people who speak to me every week, including Members of the House, regarding BusConnects and other issues relating to Dublin. We heard about that from various Deputies during the debate, and is understandable and fair in the context of the Bill. People want to use public transport and are seeking reliability. Investment by the Government is one part of that. Cork commuter rail is an example of something being used when it is provided. The Cork to Mallow, Midleton or Cobh line shows people voting with their feet. That is an example of the management of A.J. Cronin and others. It is also shows that if a plan is put together and backed up by resources people will use a service.

One of the comments I constantly hear, including last Sunday at the Douglas Young at Heart event for the late Phil Goodman, is about bus services. People tell me they want to use buses, but they want to know what happens if a bus does not come and they are left waiting.

Members mentioned change during the debate. Older people in particular do not like change or do not necessarily want their route numbers or timetables to change. Punctuality and reliability are important.

Accountability was also mentioned. It was stated that the NTA not accountable. It is accountable to the Minister. Fines to the tune of €735,000 last year were levied on Bus Éireann due to a lack of reliability. I am not immune to what is going on. There needs to be accountability. Deputies Daly and Quinlivan made reference to that in their contributions. They are correct. People on smaller routes need to be looked after.

Given that I am from Bishopstown, it would be remiss of me not to mention the Bishopstown section of BusConnects not coming into play. That is short-sighted on the part of the NTA. In the case of Cork, let us plan for BusConnects to operate in tandem with and to complement the Luas. At its core, BusConnects is about transforming public transport and the strategic corridor F makes no sense to me. The Bill underpins investment in public transport around sustainable transport corridors, in particular the Bishopstown to Cork city route.

It would also be remiss of me if I did not make reference to the plan for the Luas for Cork going through Bishopstown GAA club and Highfield RFC. I have made my position quite clear as somebody who is in favour of the Luas but does in any way see any merit in the us going through Bishopstown and Highfield in any shape or form or affecting the residents of Wilton Avenue when a vast amount of land owned by the HSE in Cork University Hospital can be used.

This is a very important Bill. As the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, said, it is vital to provide a clear legislative framework to extend the national transport authorities remit and enable it to undertake the construction of public transport infrastructure. I remind Members that, with regard to the NTA, section 44(2) of the Act includes an accountability element. I thank Members for their contributions and look forward to the passage of the Bill through the Houses.