Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 653: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide details of his plans for the roll-out of a bus rapid transit system in Cork city. [27131/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The issue of a bus rapid transit public transport system for Cork City and surrounding satellite towns was examined in the Cork Public Transport Feasibility Study, (renamed the Cork Area Transit System - CATS Study) which was funded by my Department. This Study assessed a range of corridors in the Cork Metropolitan Area and found that only one corridor, a west-east corridor from Ballincollig to Mahon, via the City Centre, has the potential passenger flows of sufficient magnitude to justify a rapid transit public transport solution.

The report stated that the "BRT Preliminary Capital Development Costs " would be in the order of €306 million. However, that stated figure excluded some key elements such as land acquisition, legal and planning & development costs. Given the constraints in available funding, sufficient funding will not be available to permit the development of the proposed BRT system in Cork during the period of the new national development plan 2012 -2016 which is currently being prepared.

However, as an initial step, it is intended that the National Transport Authority, which acts on behalf of my Department in relation to the provision of public transport infrastructure in the regional cities, will examine the potential for developing this corridor as a high quality bus-based transport route in conjunction with the local authorities. This could, subject to funding availability, facilitate its possible transition to a BRT corridor at a later stage.