I welcome the roll-out of any public transport across the country. A fully functioning republic needs bus and rail services that are reliable and affordable. To reach our climate targets, we need to be moving a little quicker. However, people are not going to get out of their cars if buses do not arrive. They are not going to get out of their cars if it is dangerous to cycle. They are not going to take the bicycle. They are not going to go on public transport if it does not arrive. That is a huge difficulty in my constituency of Dublin South-Central. The Minister of State and I have spoken a lot about buses in Dublin South-Central. He probably knows quite a lot about the public transport in my constituency.
Sentiment score: -0.00
The Minister of State could nearly drive the bus. Would he turn up on time? That would be fantastic.
Sentiment score: 0.19
The difficulty is that since I was elected, I have held eight public meetings and a number of them were solely about public transport. Our constituency is close to the city. The focus for Bus Connects is getting people from the commuter belts into the city. That seems to have failed is when you live close to the city and the system is not functioning fully. The community of Bluebell-Inchicore has been protesting very well since before I was elected. I pay tribute to former Deputy Joan Collins, her friends and neighbours, and the people she supports for all the work they have done on that bus route. The problem is that the new bus routes the NTA wants to bring in will not bring those people to Thomas Street, Meath Street or Francis Street, or all the surrounding areas where they go shopping and where their religious services, doctors, dentists and opticians are. This is a difficulty. Only approximately 40% of the people in that part of the constituency own cars. Very few people are driving. They are an older population. They are not all on bikes. If you have your weekly shopping, you are not going to be bringing it on your bicycle unless you have a cargo bike. The bus service there is a disaster for those people. They are protesting all the time. A second group of people are from Drimnagh. I had a public meeting there recently. The difficulty there is that the bus service now follows a different route, which nobody wants. This is not the only place in my constituency where this is an issue. The NTA dreams up where people want to go when, in fact, it is not where they want to go. They are cut off from coming into town. They are cut off from their doctors and all the medical things that are there. There is also the fact that there are ghost buses. The buses do not turn up on time and are not reliable. In Chapelizod, the NTA has admitted it did not get it right for the 80 bus. It is going the wrong route. It does not turn up. It is a disaster in terms of ghosting. The ramp that was to be built by the end of the year seems to have disappeared, like half the buses. The NTA is admitting to not getting it right. People are contacting public representatives on a regular basis. This is the challenge when the service moves to other parts of the country. My advice to any communities to which the NTA or Bus Connects is coming is to go to every single consultation, make sure they are there, make an effort and have their voices heard. I urge them to ensure they keep a record. Plenty of people who have been to those consultations are told that something did not happen and they feel they were not listened to. They feel they were absolutely ignored. For anyone thinking about going to consultations, I suggest they take a record, write down who was there and the names of the representatives. It is important for them to liaise with their public representatives, TDs and councillors, to ensure they know what they want so that we can advocate for them. I have spent so much time advocating for bus services. As a cyclist, I must say that I have never learned as much about buses as I have in the time since I was elected. The reality is that we need to do better. It is vital that the Minister for Transport is responsible for the NTA. I cannot understand why it does not report to him. I am sure it is not called a "quango" but whatever it is called and whatever the relationship is, it must fall under the remit of the Minister for Transport. It must report to him because if it does not, I do not know who it will report to. The Minister needs to get a grip of what is going on in the NTA, particularly in Dublin South-Central and any other place it is going to.
Sentiment score: -0.03