107. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Transport if he will seek substantial additional investment in public transport so that more services can be rapidly rolled out in response to the fuel crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31435/26]

Sentiment score: -0.16

In response to the fuel crisis, other countries are rolling out additional services. Some are making public transport free, which we have called for for a long time. The Government did not provide any funding for new services in this budget. Will it reverse that decision in light of the fuel crisis? Will it provide additional funding for new services to be rapidly rolled out to alleviate the fuel and cost-of-living crisis and to enable us to get off the reliance on fossil fuels as quickly as possible?

Sentiment score: -0.27

To respond to the climate crisis and the cost-of-living and fuel crises, we need to rapidly roll out as much public transport as quickly as is possible. That is not what is currently happening. Dublin Bus is sitting on 50 new electric buses. They are expensive and very good quality presumably but they are sitting there not being used because of a lack of appropriate infrastructure. The oldest new electric bus has been sitting there since November 2023. We have owned this bus for two years and five months. It is not on the road. It is not being used. Why? One reason is the lack of charging infrastructure and Broadstone buses cannot charged during the day because the grid is overloaded. Can the Minister not say to his Government colleagues that we should be prioritising charging our electric buses instead of giving all of our electricity to the data centres? Each time we add one of these electric buses to the fleet, we are taking one diesel bus out. Why on earth are we taking buses, regardless of what fuel they are, out of the fleet when we should be adding capacity? Regardless of what fuel they are, it is much better for people in public transport rather than sitting in individual cars.

Sentiment score: -0.02

Yes, please.

Sentiment score: 0.61

I ask the Minister to give me a date for when all the electric buses will be in use. I would like that. I will hold him to it.

Sentiment score: 0.12

There are 50 brand new electric buses still not being used. The issue that the Minister did not come back to is that each time we add one of the electric buses, we are withdrawing a diesel bus. Why on earth are we doing that? Why are we not having more buses in the system? That is what we need. We need a lot of more buses. Why are we scrapping routes? We introduced the BusConnects routes. That is fine. Why are we withdrawing other routes as a consequence of that? For example, in my constituency, there is a campaign to reinstate the 49 bus, which was cut when the F1 Busconnects route was introduced. It is a downgrade for a lot of people. It is taking people commuting to work to the city centre from Tallaght, Firhouse and Knocklyon an extra 20 to 30 minutes each way, which is ridiculous. It is driving people back into cars as a result. In response to the fuel crisis, why not reinstate the 49 bus? There are examples from other parts of the city. We should be expanding routes and buses, not swapping one in for another.

Sentiment score: -0.06