The Government has failed consistently in the delivery of transport infrastructure. Projects experience delays, costs mount and progress occurs at a snail’s pace. I am proud to have been representing the people of Limerick in this House for over a decade. It has been the honour of my life. I tend to travel to Dublin by public transport, most regularly by train. Upon arriving in Dublin, I mostly use public transport to get to Leinster House. What I notice most – I am sure other Deputies will concur - is the contrast in provision of public transport in Dublin compared to Limerick. In Limerick, like many other counties, public transport provision is inadequate and forces people to depend on their car to commute. In Limerick, one will find buses serving roads with no bus infrastructure or no buses serving an area with bus infrastructure. One such area of Limerick is the Condell Road. There are approximately 400 houses and apartments and all the infrastructure for bus services along this road. The bus lane was put in when I was on the council, which is over ten years ago. It has bus lanes and bus shelters, but there is still no local bus service in the area, which is a farcical situation for those living there. Many of those people do not have cars. Not everyone has the luxury of having their own personal vehicle. Hundreds of people live in this urban area with no functioning public transport route. The Limerick-Shannon metropolitan area transport strategy, LSMATS, was published in December 2022, an ambitious 20-year strategy to deliver sustainable public transport infrastructure for the region. It had great promise. Initial drafts included a commitment to the delivery of the long sought-after northern distributor road, which has been acknowledged as being crucial for the development of the entire region. Indeed, the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, a Fine Gael party colleague of the Minister of State and my constituency colleague, said in 2021: The Northern Distributor Road is a key piece of road infrastructure for Limerick and is vital for balanced connectivity and development across our city, including the provision of public bus transportation links. Yet, when the strategy was published, the northern distributor road was a glaring omission from the document, as it was from the national development plan. Recently, the Coonagh to Knockalisheen Distributor Road, which some consider the first section of a northern distributor road, was opened. It is only partially built. The first two sections are done and they have had a huge positive impact already on the traffic on the north side of Limerick city. I was on that road yesterday, as was Deputy Toole, whom I see sitting in the Chamber. It allowed us to get from Moyross to Dooradoyle in under ten minutes, which would have been inconceivable years ago. It is ridiculous, however, that some who live on the north side of such a small city must get two buses if they are studying at the University of Limerick or working in the adjacent technology park. If this Bill is passed, I hope this project can be considered and implemented. That is only one of a list of problems with public transport in Limerick, however. Perhaps the next most important issue is the delivery of BusConnects. We are already seeing a four-year delay in the delivery of BusConnects. It is impacting the economic development and liveability of Limerick. Every time we look for an improvement in bus services, we are told we have to wait for BusConnects to be done. Many times in this Chamber I have raised issues about University Hospital Limerick and the growing population in Limerick and the wider mid-west region. The growth in population also makes the delivery of a functional, affordable and reliable public transport system critical. Limerick BusConnects has the potential to transform connectivity within the city and its suburbs, improving access to employment and education while reducing congestion and delivering on commitments to sustainability. Yet, we see no desire to provide the urgently needed funding for BusConnects in Limerick. If we have to wait for BusConnects, I ask the Minister of State and others to intervene to ensure that we have a bus on the Condell Road. People living there must have some sort of access to public transport because, at the moment, their nearest public transport option is approximately 30 minutes walk away. Many of them have small children and do not own cars.

Sentiment score: 0.11