Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to remind the House that today, 16 December, is the deadline for submissions for the BusConnects bus corridor project. The Cathaoirleach will be familiar with it. It is a highly ambitious programme to improve our public transportation and address climate action but I also see it as a social equality issue in terms of providing better public transport services in the city to everybody.

The public bus is relied on by both young and old and provides great independence of travel. The project projects an investment of approximately €2 billion over ten years. Today's consultation deadline relates to the proposed 16 bus corridors which, if they are implemented, would deliver 230 km of priority bus corridors and 200 km of priority cycle routes. It is an ambitious and important project for the city but this is the third round of public consultation. It was conducted during the Covid-19 restrictions. I commend everybody who has engaged, including the individuals, homeowners, residents and residents' groups, associations and businesses but it has been difficult. I urge every Member of the House to make a submission because this is not just for us, the Dubliners. It is for people outside the city in the county and those who will visit the capital in the future to benefit from it. I urge all Members to include in their submission a real push on the National Transport Authority, NTA, to deliver park and ride facilities with corridors and to ensure there is an increase in the capacity of environmentally friendly buses. I have asked the NTA to do this but we should be charging the authority to at least evaluate the cost of making public transportation free to everybody under the age of 23, essentially taking the over-65 free travel and providing it to young people, to get them into the habit of using it to go to school, college or training. If we are making this big an investment in the infrastructure let us make the service available.