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

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I agree there is a need to reduce traffic congestion within Galway city and county, to improve commuting times and to reduce emissions. No one would argue against encouraging higher vehicle occupancy where possible. Four people travelling in one car is a much more efficient way of using resources than each taking a separate car. However, the specific point raised by Senator Healy Eames relates to whether allowing multi-occupancy vehicles to use bus lanes would be an appropriate way to encourage multi-occupancy. The short answer is that it would not.

We must remember what is the purpose of bus lanes and why they are in place. The rationale for creating the bus lane network was to provide on-street priority for buses. The intention is to make bus services faster and more reliable to attract more people out of their cars and onto public transport. This helps to reduce congestion and pollution. The construction of the bus lane network was done at some expense to the public in order to enable this to happen. The legislation governing usage of the bus lanes is set out in the Road Traffic 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. Cyclists were permitted to use bus lanes as they are inherently vulnerable as road users and are considered safer in bus lanes rather than in general traffic. It may interest the House to know that taxis were initially not allowed into bus lanes. It was only after the introduction of bus lanes that it was agreed to allow taxis to also use them. This was done after much consideration and was a concession based on the fact that taxis are available for on-street hire. Vehicles used by members of the emergency services - the Garda, the fire brigade and the ambulance service - in the course of their duties may also be driven in bus lanes in order to prevent delay in reaching the scenes of emergencies, transporting people to hospital, etc. Since the introduction of the bus lane network, my Department has received numerous requests - indeed I have been in this House on many occasions to discuss such requests - in respect of the need to open bus lanes to other categories of road users. Some of those requests related to multi-occupancy cars. In all cases, my predecessors and I have taken the view that extending the use of bus lanes to other categories of vehicles would undermine the original purpose of the lanes.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, we 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. We also need to remember that last year in this city alone, passenger numbers on the Dublin Bus network rose to 122 million on the company's 110 public service routes. In the Senator's city, the numbers using Bus Éireann's services are up from 3.5 million in 2012 to more than 4 million in 2014, a huge increase of 14%.

As the country gets back to work and the recovery strengthens, we must ensure that taking the bus to school, college or work is an attractive option, so that people leave their cars behind and reduce congestion on our roads. One of the ways to do that is by ensuring bus lanes are free flowing and journey times are as short as possible.

In light of the original reasons for creating bus lanes and the sound reasons for rejecting previous proposals to extend access to other classes of vehicle, I remain of the view that there is no ground for changing the law to allow multi-occupancy vehicles into bus lanes.