Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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872. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views that public moneys are being used to good effect by the National Transport Authority on Bus Rapid Transit, Swiftway-BRT, the city centre-Drumcondra-Dublin Airport-Swords corridor, in view of a submission made during the 2011 public consultation that stated that a BRT solution would not be adequate to cater for the forecast travel demand on the airport-Swords corridor over the lifetime of the strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14306/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The National Transport Authority (NTA) has statutory responsibility for developing public transport infrastructure in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) including Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects.

The NTA’s report “Bus Rapid Transit – Core Dublin Network” published in October 2012 identified that while BRT does not have sufficient capacity to serve the Swords/City Centre corridor over the longer term, it could provide an interim solution in the shorter term pending the development of a higher capacity rail solution, such as metro, on this corridor. Two other cross city routes - Blanchardstown to UCD and Tallaght to Clongriffin, were also identified as having potential for development as BRT routes.

The NTA is currently finalising a detailed business case for the Swords BRT project.  This business case will require careful consideration in tandem with other analyses being undertaken on large public transport projects, including the Fingal / North Dublin Transport Study, updated business case for the DART Underground project, and the work being carried out in the preparation of a draft Transport Strategy for the GDA.

I anticipate that I will have concluded my review of the outcome from these studies by mid-year, in conjunction with the development of the new draft transport strategy for the region covering the period 2015 to 2035 and a new capital plan to 2020.

The potential  contribution of BRT in addressing public transport deficits in the GDA to 2035 will be addressed in the transport strategy.

In the meantime no decision has yet been made with regard to any proposed BRT projects and no funding has been allocated or is currently available for their construction in the existing capital plan to 2016.