Darragh O'Brien

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as ucht a cheist ar an ábhar tábhachtach seo. Aontaím leis go ndéanfaimid ár ndícheall chun feabhsú agus dul chun cinn a dhéanamh ar son na ndaoine i nDún Laoghaire. I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. The Deputy will be aware that under the Road Safety Authority Act, the RSA has statutory responsibility for this. We all know that. Reducing drive…

The RSA has indicated that overtime and bank holiday testing will continue throughout the course of this year. As the hour changes later this month, we can look at whether there is potential to do that further. In relation to the assignment of those new testers who will be going to the Sandyford centre, I will ask that specific question as to whether they can be used in the interim period. I know…

I thank Deputy Whitmore for the opportunity to discuss bus services and the future expansion of bus services in Wicklow. In many instances, good or very good services are being provided but obviously this is not the case with the L2 service, given what Deputy Whitmore has outlined. I will get to that specifically. Deputy Whitmore knows that, as Minister, I am responsible for policy and overall fun…

That is what I have been told but I have taken down the examples Deputy Whitmore has given me. Go-Ahead said that availability of fleet and staff has greatly reduced the number of lost kilometres being experienced on the route. The company has recruited a number of mechanics from overseas, which has assisted in addressing fleet reliability issues, while the number of drivers available to operate s…

I will chase up the 199 route. I do not have an update on it as it was not part of the question. The Deputy will understand that. I welcome feedback from all Deputies, Government or Opposition, in relation to public transport. We have made significant advances over the last five years. Public transport journey numbers bear out that people are responding to it. Of course, we are not going to resol…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an gceist. Tá brón orm go raibh mé déanach. Shíl mé go raibh na ceisteanna ag tosnú ag 10.30 a.m. I welcome the Deputy's question on the bus stop enhancement programme. It is a relatively new programme. Choosing sustainable transport is not just a matter of where a bus or rail line goes on a map; it is about creating an interconnected network. For that, people …

It is €500,000 per local authority. I have projected and we reckon the drawdown next year will be about €15.5 million, because we can see the pipeline that is coming through. In fairness, the Deputy has recognised this is a new programme. So far, under the bus stop enhancement programme, 100 bus stop locations and installations were done in 2025. There were ten new bus shelters, which is not a lo…

The Deputy's question is valid and the points he made are valid. In fairness, he acknowledged that it is a new scheme. I have given the Deputy details of some of the works that are ongoing. Work on another scheme in Mullingar commenced this week. It will include a further 60 bus stops, the majority of which were completed in 2025, but the remainder will be done there now. I agree with the Deputy'…

I assure Deputy Ahern that the Department of Transport, the NTA and the public transport operators are working very closely to ensure optimised deployment of resources across the network to best meet passenger demand and reduce their journey times, where possible. The F1 route the Deputy refers to was introduced just last October. We have seen some issues with some routes, such as the Chapelizod …

I do not disagree. The frequency is there and is improving but the Deputy is right that the journey times on some of the services are longer because the route is more interconnected to take in more people. Having said that, we are working with Dublin City Council and other stakeholders to deliver additional bus priority measures within the city. A lot of it as we get into the city. On 18 March, th…

We will. When questions like this are tabled and they fall within the remit of the NTA, I meet the NTA. It is useful that these matters are raised when we meet. To be fair, the F1, F2 and F3 routes were only rolled out in October last year. I appreciate people's patience with this. I am committed to looking at what interim measures we can take. The frequency on the F1 route is every 15 minutes at …

We are fully committed to supporting the transition to zero-emission vehicles. We regularly review the EV incentives and grants to ensure they are delivering value for money and supporting the delivery of the ambitious targets we set. Last year, the target was 195,000 EVs on our roads by the end of 2025. We actually exceeded that. The final figure was 212,500 EVs. The supports are certainly assist…

I am not 100% sure what figures Deputy Daly has there and I do not want to just dispute them for the sake of it. I can go back to 2024, but they are not the numbers I have. What is very interesting is that in the first month of this year we are looking at really significant increases in EV registration. If I take the Deputy's own county of Kerry, in January 2025, there were 86 EV registrations. In…

We want to make sure that the grants are deployed in an equitable manner, in particular for low and middle income families. I alluded to that at the committee yesterday. Deputy Daly will see where we have made changes on other SEAI grants, such as for home retrofit. My whole focus was on low and middle income families and to break the grants up. We keep these grants under review. They are a good i…

This is 2025 to 2026. There are 212,500 EVs on our roads. It is going in the right direction, and the target was exceeded. As I said in the committee yesterday, I always keep these under review. We look at what we have done on the residential side. The impact that has had already is really good. We will keep this under review, but this is absolutely going in the right direction right now.

I assure Deputy Coppinger that I do take it very seriously. It is a real frustration and inconvenience for passengers who are affected by ghost buses or services that do not show up. There have been particular recent bus cancellations on the Dublin Bus and Go Ahead Ireland networks. We need to acknowledge that last year there were 363.5 million public passenger journeys across the State, which is …

I am pleased that people are responding and using public transport at rates we have not seen previously. That is good. I acknowledge that particularly on certain routes, there are issues. A cancellation rate of up to 8% in a month on the 238 route is unacceptable. I will raise that matter directly with the operators. The operators do get fined and significant fines are levied on them for non-perf…

Dublin West will get and is getting that massive investment. We have €24.3 billion to invest in transport between now and 2030. The Deputy is right to highlight the issue. I know Dublin West very well. The Fingal area is one of the fastest-growing areas in the country. There are good jobs there. New families are setting down their roots in the housing we have built over the past five years. There …

The Deputy has been advocating on this issue for some time. The F spine routes have only been in place only since October, and there have been issues with them. The NTA is monitoring them. BusConnects is and should be a positive development but we have seen very specific issues with some of the new routes that have been rolled out. I absolutely assure the Deputy that I will work directly with him …

I 100% agree. There have been issues with Go-Ahead Ireland, for example, with regard to mechanics. That has been rectified and those mechanics are now in place. We have had issues with driver recruitment across our network. One of the reasons for that is we have near full employment in our economy, with record numbers of people - nearly 3 million - working. Having said that , there are very good a…

The NTA's transport strategy for the greater Dublin area sets out the framework for transport investment across the region from 2022 to 2042. The strategy includes delivery of the Navan rail line between 2031 and 2036, subject to planning and funding approvals. The plan is currently on target. It is anticipated that a public consultation on the route options for the Navan rail line will take plac…

The Deputy is right and I have no issue whatsoever with him raising this matter regularly. I do not want any slippage on it. The Navan rail line will be absolutely transformational in terms of quality of life, the environment and the economy. It will be a major piece of infrastructure to deliver. All I am interested in doing is making sure we hit those timeframes. In the NDP, there are major proje…

The Deputy is right; we can control the controllables. It is funded right the way up to planning and we will get it through planning. We often talk about the NDP going to 2030. Of the €104.25 billion investment, one quarter of that is for public transport. If we look out to 2035, the figure is €245 billion. Thanks to the hard work of our people and good economic management, we will have the capita…

Deputy Dolan and I have discussed this route before. The Department of Transport, the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, and I are acutely aware of this. We have seen good increases across the rural transport network and they are very important links. I have mentioned to other Deputies and colleagues that when we look at public transport usage, we see that 363.5 million people used it last year. …

The Deputy has been and remains a very strong advocate for improving public transport in his constituency and the Galway area. I commend him on that and I will work with him in this regard. Thankfully, the Government, of which he is a member, is investing in public transport at a rate never seen before. What really pleases me is the investment in our regions as well. It is not east coast-centric o…