Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to talk about public transport in Dublin Central. Obviously, every senior citizen in Dublin Central can avail of free travel and young people up to the age of 24 are enjoying a 50% discount on public transport. That is welcome. Does the Leader know that feeling when one has been standing at a bus stop and has been waiting and waiting and the next thing three buses all come along at the one time? It is infuriating, although one is delighted and wonders which bus to take. What is happening in Dublin Central in terms of public transportation investment is similar to that. Currently, in Dublin Central, we have a statutory planning application in train for the Blanchardstown bus corridor into town through the Navan Road.The Leader knows the route well. It runs down Old Cabra Road and through Stoneybatter. An application has been made for a BusConnects route from Finglas and Ballymun, running down Mobhi Road and Botanic Road, through Phibsborough and Constitution Hill, and into town. We also have the MetroLink, which is a massive infrastructural project. The DART+ West upgrade is also progressing. This is all welcome investment. We all support more frequent, affordable and reliable public transport. As the Leader knows, we have campaigned for safer public transport. However, for residents and businesses in the area, this number of statutory planning applications running at the one time is an enormous burden. It is a burden for any citizen to engage in a voluntary capacity. It is a statutory process. The engineering wizards and experts within the National Transport Authority, NTA, and other statutory bodies should have had the sequencing capacity to know that would put an unreasonable burden on residents.

I ask the Leader to write to the Minister for Transport on this issue. I appreciate this falls within the remit of the NTA but the Minister for Transport needs to intervene and give direction that is going to galvanise support and engage people to support these massive infrastructural projects in order that we can have more reliable, efficient and affordable public transport.