Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 172: To ask the Minister for Transport the level of funding provided for bus corridors in 2006, particularly for those serving Dublin 15 and the Blanchardstown area; the way in which same is spent; the amount and percentage of such funding drawn down in each of the past five years;the number of bus lane kilometres in Fingal; the different QBCs and the number of pinch points for buses on each route; the percentage of each route where a bus lane exists; if he has satisfied himself in relation to the level of QBC provision in Fingal; the legislative measures he proposes to speed up bus priority measures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25371/06]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The development of Quality Bus Corridors in the Greater Dublin Area is funded through the Traffic Management Grants Scheme, administered by the Dublin Transportation Office, and implemented by the local authorities of the Greater Dublin Area through the Quality Bus Network Project Office. This year, I have made almost €38m available for QBC development, €26,442,798 of which will be spent in the current year, and €12,067,440 of which is contractually committed into 2007.

In 2006 allocations totalling €6,662,341 have been made to schemes in the Fingal County Council Area. These are:

Of these €6,435,341 are specific to the Blanchardstown Area.

The funding is being spent on the design and implementation of bus priority measures to help facilitate the passage of buses through congested areas and to help improve bus run-times.

There are currently 11 operational QBCs serving Dublin, covering 139km. Of these, three serve Fingal. They are Swords (21.6km), Blanchardstown (16.4km) and Finglas (6km). Local authority boundaries are not a consideration when trying to implement a corridor treatment of bus priority measures. Details of the 11 QBCs, including the percentage of each route where a bus lane exists, are set out in my reply to PQ21968.06, to Deputy Ruairí Quinn, on 7th June, 2006. Details of expenditure on QBCs in the past five years are also set out in that reply.

On the issue of pinch points, as I said in my answer to PQ21968.06, the annual monitoring exercise undertaken by the DTO shows where bus priority infrastructure continues to require an improvement in performance in terms of protecting bus operations from the effects of traffic congestion. The results of these monitoring exercises are used by the DTO to inform the development of the bus priority scheme programme. I am informed by the DTO that a significant portion of the Quality Bus Network Office's 2006 programme addresses urgent needs such as pinch points. The Deputy may care to examine the reports for Winter 2002, 2003 and 2004, which are available on the DTO website at www.dto.ie/web2006/qbcmon.htm.

Under Transport 21, I have committed to doubling the Quality Bus Network by making €600m available to the Traffic Management Grants scheme over the period 2006-2015. The following QBC schemes are proposed in the short-term for Fingal, subject to the usual statutory process and are part of the DTO Steering Committee-approved work programme for the Quality Bus Network Office:

—Swords QBC Enhancements (Swords to City Centre)

—Blanchardstown QBC (Existing) Enhancements to City Centre

—Blanchardstown QBC — N3 Inbound (Meath County Boundary to Scotts Roundabout)

—Blanchardstown QBC — N3 Outbound (from Scotts Roundabout)

—Huntstown Bus Gate

—Snugborough Road

—Blanchardstown Road North & South

—Blanchardstown Town Centre Interchange

—Blakestown Way

—Blanchardstown Village.

I have no proposals for specific legislative measures in respect of bus priority matters.