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-performance. I have the 2024 figures for Go-Ahead Ireland, which are the most recent figures I have for a full year. It was f…

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 are more than pinch points in certain areas and the Deputy is right to raise those as an issue. I will in particular rai…

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 on this on behalf of his constituents. I have already highlighted the issues, particularly on the 23 and 24 routes, to t…

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 and well-paid jobs that give a path to progression within our bus operators, including in Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann an…

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 place in the middle of this year. I will ask that it be done by the end of quarter 2. We want to avoid it happening during th…

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 projects like MetroLink which has gone on for years and will start construction next year. There is DART+ and all of the vari…

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 capital to actually deliver these projects. By the way, I do not look at them just from an expenditure perspective. It is also…

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. People are responding both in urban and rural areas when the services are there. Regarding the 425A route between Galway…

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 or Dublin-centric where it may have been with some other initiatives. We are looking at regional development. I asked the…

At the end of quarter 1 when we have the submissions back, we will have a look at it. One thing is, with the PSO, which underpins many public transport services because we have expanded them so greatly, myself and the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, were able to secure a significant increase in the base in the PSO. This still means we have to manage new routes in the context of our overall allocation. The point the Deputy has made very clearly is very valid. The existing four-time-a-day service is working very …

I thank Deputy O'Connell for raising this really important issue in terms of the extension of service operating hours and the BusConnects network redesign. As she is no doubt aware, it is a transformative programme of investment in our bus system aimed at improving public transport across the city by strengthening the existing system through enhanced services with high-frequency spines and new local orbital and radial roots. As part of that redesign, the NTA has introduced 15 24-hour bus services across the city in…

Those 15 routes I referred to are up and running. They are 24-hour routes. Going back five years, we did not have any 24-hour routes. The Deputy is right that we need to support the economy. More people would go out in our city if it was easier to access. It is getting better. Of course we are looking for other opportunities for routes, with more 24-hour routes. Obviously they have to be paid for too. I mentioned in response to colleagues earlier that we have to manage our new routes and improvements to existing ro…

We have to recognise that, as our population is growing, our system is growing too. The 363.5 million public passenger journeys last year is a record number. That is a good thing and I know the Deputy fully supports that. We will look at the specific issues with the routes the Deputy mentioned. I will feed that in and I am sure the Deputy has done so already. We will always have work to do to roll out those improvements. We are ambitious as a Government to see public transport options increased for our citizens and…

I thank Senator Collins for her questions. I am delighted to be here in the Seanad today to answer them. I will preface my remarks by saying I will not comment on individual applications that have been submitted and I know the Senator will appreciate why. I will speak generally. As an island nation, we have some of the best wind resources in the world and we are uniquely positioned to lead Europe's renewable electricity future. In Ireland, we are the best in Europe at integrating renewables into our grid. Senator C…

Any planning application that goes in is a matter for the planning authority. The Senator knows this; I am stating the obvious. The local authorities decide themselves and then if it is appealed to the board or An Coimisiún Pleanála, they will make the decision. There is no question of us pausing for the development of renewable energy sources. If we have learned anything, and we have learned a lot, particularly since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, it is that the overdependence on fossil fuels from third count…

I thank the Deputy. First, to correct him, we do not have the most expensive energy prices in Europe. Energy is still too costly and we have got to work on that. It is a priority for Government to bring about changes in that regard. Not all of it is within our control. That is why we need to continue to expand renewables, invest in our grid and drive affordability. The programme for Government acknowledges the increased energy cost pressures on households and commits to bringing forward measures to contain energy c…

There is more work that needs to be done. That is why I established the national energy affordability task force. On what it has done so far, significantly before the last budget, it produced its interim report which guided us in the last budget. That work continues - things like looking at the structure of the bill and at how we actually pay for our grid investment. Critical to that, if we are to deliver permanent affordability, is to ensure that investment in our grid of €18.9 billion over just this five-year per…

At every meeting of the Energy Council I have attended, I have raised the issue of affordability. This is an issue that is prevalent in most EU states to varying degrees. I would like to see changes to the regulatory framework happen. Most of that needs to be driven at EU level. Issues relating to, for example, the Spark app need to be dealt with as well. Those issues are being looked at European level in relation to affordability when it comes to energy, particularly for households and small businesses. What the n…

The CRU is responsible for grid connection policy. I will be working on reforming the CRU, something that is needed. We are also securing additional resources for the CRU, which I welcome. The CRU was assigned responsibility for regulating the electricity sector following the enactment of the Electricity Regulation Act 1999. The management of and matters related to connections to the electricity grid are functions assigned to ESB Networks and EirGrid under rules determined by the CRU. These organisations are indepe…

When Sinn Féin publishes its legislation, I will certainly look at it in a constructive manner. Data centres underpin an important technology sector in this country that employs hundreds of thousands of people. We have not had a situation, nor will we, where a data centre is connected ahead of a housing development. That just does not happen. It has not happened. We need to be at the cutting edge when it comes to technology. We should not turn away either indigenous or foreign direct investment. We need to look at …