Tom Morrissey (Progressive Democrats)

I thank the Minister for Transport for coming in the House to reply to his Adjournment matter. With the advent of the Luas light rail it is clear that people can be attracted to public transport when it is properly provided. For many years we have had a bus network which has had to fight tooth and nail for every foot of QBC. That is due to the arduous nature and procedure which has to be gone though by way of public consultation, design and on to county councils.

Given the huge investment through the national development plan, under the Minister's stewardship, I would like if the provision of QBCs could be treated with the same urgency as the light rail order gave to the Luas. The Luas will be successful because it has priority over a designated lane and is not competing for road space. Unfortunately, the buses on the current QBCs have to compete for limited road space. Hard decisions will have to be taken by us as politicians, and especially by county councillors, given that greater priority must be accorded to the provision of QBCs to eliminate the bottlenecks on current QBCs.

While engaging in a further roll-out of QBCs in Dublin we have to become even more ambitious because with the provision of Luas it is clear when public transport is properly provided people have no problem in using it. I was given figures today which indicate that 20,000 passengers used the Luas last Monday. It is well on target to meet the 7 million passengers on the Sandyford line by the end of the year. That should give us the green light to do all we can for the Dublin bus network, for which we have provided a huge amount of funding to develop a good bus fleet. We have to look at the infrastructure deficits on the QBCs and move to a situation where people will have no problem in getting on the buses.