Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 265: To ask the Minister for Transport the way Dublin south central electoral area will benefit from Transport 21; if his attention has been drawn to the lack of public transport in particular serving the Terenure and Harold's Cross area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24158/07]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The area referred to by Deputy is primarily served by bus-based public transport. The deployment of buses is an operational matter for Dublin Bus but I understand that as part of the allocation of the 100 additional buses, Dublin Bus has put additional buses on Route 54A which services Harold's Cross and this has resulted in a 25% increase in frequency on the route.

In addition, Dublin Bus has also recently introduced new routes 74 and 74A from Ballycullen which provide an additional 14 morning peak buses through Terenure. These routes operate 7 days a week. Terenure further benefited with significant increases in departures on Route 15 from Knocklyon also serving the area.

Transport 21 includes funding for a feasibility study on the proposed Luas line from the city centre to Dundrum via Rathfarnham and Terenure. It was announced, on 30 January last, that the RPA would commence work on the Rathfarnham feasibility study in April. Preliminary work has commenced on this feasibility study and I understand from the RPA that the feasibility study will take a number of months to complete.

While Transport 21 involves a very large commitment of financial resources, those resources are also finite. It has therefore been necessary to prioritise the investments to be made over the ten-year period. There is no financial provision in Transport 21 for the construction of a Luas line to serve the Terenure/Harold's Cross/ Rathfarnham areas.