Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On biodiversity, just transition and ideas around that, about 25 years ago, my husband was involved in pioneering the plantation of blueberries in Allenwood and the peatlands. It was an idea to see if this fruit would take in Irish soil and it was a great success. There are ideas that have been out there for years and it is great to see them being embraced now. When I was a councillor, I asked South Dublin County Council why we were not planting on top of bus shelters. We could do with a redesign of bus shelters to bring additional flora into areas and encourage bees, as Senator Martin has said.

I am a member of the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. We are working our way through the marine planning and development management Bill, which is a big tome. In the course of our deliberations, the future of green energy and the careers it promises have come up. I have a five-year-old who talks about what she will be when she grows up. I tell her she will not decide that now because we do not know what careers will be available. I find it exciting to hear different experts at the committee forecast what will happen in wind energy and other areas and talk about the careers that have not yet been invented. These careers will be available by the time my daughter is a teenager and, hopefully, goes to college. It brings to mind that we need an education and vision-casting programme in schools for our young people, who already are visionaries and who challenge us on recycling and everything connected with our carbon use. They need a vision for the careers that lie ahead and what they might do with that vision.My second main point concerns public consultation. Tonight I will leave here, and following my meeting with the parliamentary party, I will participate in a zoom call with a number of residents' associations on the issue of BusConnects routes, because we are trying to get as many people informed as possible as to what is going on. I have written to the Minister's office and spoken to his officials, and in that regard, I believe that the six-week consultation period has been far too short, and that it needs to be extended because we need a longer period of time. The descriptions and the meetings in respect of these bus corridors have been for representatives only, then those representatives have to go and get that information out into the community. In the middle of a pandemic that has been very difficult. Not everybody has access to the technology required to participate, so the period of consultation must be extended past 16 December 2020 in order to ensure that we have a true and full public consultation.

Where I live, there is a very small area that is impacted by three bus corridors, and of the six conduits into the city, up to four of them are now closed off. Therefore, it is one thing to get people to change how they use transport and to start using public transport, but it is another thing to deny them the opportunity to understand it and speak about it. I hosted a meeting last Monday evening, and in the course of it I had people from all sides who made constructive descriptions and points. Indeed, one participant pointed out that for those coming into Dublin from Kildare on the M50 via Templeogue, there is no park and ride service, but yet commuters still have to get into the city, so services like that need to be created. There are positive things that can be done; not everything has to be negative in respect of BusConnects. There are positive suggestions that must be taken on board. However, if we are in the last dash of public consultation on this issue, there have been some fairly dramatic changes around the Kimmage corridor that are resulting in roads being closed and all traffic being diverted down Stannaway Road that people need to be made aware of. Older people in the community are now going to travel longer distances just to get shops. These aspects must be dealt with.

I wish to thank the Minister as his officials have confirmed that in respect of the metro feasibility study that is currently being conducted, it is not confined to any one route, it is open to several suggestions in respect of the route, and there will not be a terminus at Knocklyon, which is what it would appear to suggest. However, the suggestion of that metro route finishing at Knocklyon is also repeated in the transport strategy for the greater Dublin area. That needs to be changed in order for people to have confidence that they are being heard. I thank the Minister for the confirmation it is not a case of one singular, linear route being considered, and the route will be decided should the feasibility study prove to be fruitful and worthwhile.