Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Terry Leyden for raising this matter. I am pleased to come to the Chamber to respond and I acknowledge representatives of the industry in the Visitors Gallery. I see Senator Terry Brennan also has guests in the Visitors Gallery. They are all welcome.

The legislation governing the usage of bus lanes is set out in the Road Traffic (Traffic and Parking) Regulations 1997, as amended. Under this legislation, buses and bicycles are allowed to avail of bus lanes, as are taxis in the case of with-flow bus lanes only. The rationale for introducing this legislation, and for creating the bus lane network itself, was to provide on-street priority for bus-based public transport. The intention is to make bus services both faster and more reliable, thereby attracting more people out of private cars and onto public transport. This, in turn, helps to reduce both congestion and pollution. The construction of the bus lane network was done at some expense and inconvenience to the public in order to enable this to happen.

Cyclists are permitted to use bus lanes because they are inherently vulnerable road users, and would be safer in bus lanes than in general traffic. Initially, taxis were not allowed into bus lanes. It was only some time after the introduction of the lanes that it was agreed to allow taxis to use them. This was done only after much consideration, and was a concession based on the fact that taxis are available for on-street hire. Limousines, of course, are not. Vehicles used by members of the emergency services - Garda, fire brigade and ambulance - in the course of their duties may also be driven in bus lanes, in order to prevent delay in reaching the scenes of emergencies and in getting people to hospital.

Since the introduction of the bus lane network, my Department has received numerous requests to open bus lanes to other classes of road user. These have included requests relating to motorcycles, hackneys, and multi-occupancy cars. The issue of access for limousines has also been raised from time to time over the years. In all cases, my predecessors and I have taken the view that extending the use of bus lanes to other categories of vehicle would undermine the original purpose of these laws. The overriding concern in considering these applications is the carrying capacity of bus lanes. We do not want their primary role of providing bus priority to be undermined by allowing other vehicles access.

As a result, my predecessors and I have chosen to maintain the current restrictions on use of bus lanes. While in some cases the numbers of vehicles involved might not be large, conceding access to bus lanes to any new class of vehicles would make it difficult to argue against doing so for any other. In light of the original reasons for creating bus lanes, and the sound reasons for rejecting previous applications, I remain of the view that there is no ground for changing the law to allow limousines into bus lanes.

Senator Leyden made the point that other organisations do not have an issue with this. I imagine they would be quite supportive of it happening because once any new class of vehicle comes in, it sets a precedent for arguing that more vehicles should be included. In the near future, I hope to see the number of buses in our country increase and that will mean even more demand for use of the bus lanes, which in turn makes it more difficult to allow other vehicles in.

The Senator has some documentation and information on the matter he has raised and I am happy to take that from him on the completion of this debate.