There was a debate in the House last night on the closure of more than 159 post offices in rural communities. Throughout the country there have been large, angry meetings in response to the proposals as communities are opposed to the closures. Similarly, in Dublin city and the greater Dublin region there have been meetings in response to the proposed BusConnects project, which has been aptly renamed, "BusDisconnects". The meetings have not been called by the National Transport Authority, NTA. They have been called by residents' associations, councillors and Deputies. More than 400 people attended meetings in Crumlin and Swords. More than 300 people attended a meeting in Drimnagh. The Greenhills residents' association also called a meeting. Last night there was a meeting in Perrystown where more than 150 people attended. Residents' associations in Terenure Road and Whitehall also called meetings.

The existing cross-city bus service has evolved over decades. It goes into estates and there is excellent connectivity across the city. I accept buses might meander a bit around estates but they connect communities, which is the crucial point. It is a public service. This so-called plan for the bus service is a disaster. In the constituency I represent, there will be a withdrawal from estates of the following routes: 18, 17, 150, 123, 122, 68, 69, 13, 9 and 15A. Hospitals are losing connectivity. The 27B and 17A have been withdrawn from Beaumont Hospital. The 123 is being withdrawn from St. James's Hospital and the 47 will no longer go by St. Vincent's University Hospital. The changes will affect older citizens in particular, as well as the disabled and schoolgoing children. One community has calculated that it will take three buses to get their children to St. Louis school in Rathmines. People with health concerns involving their knees, heart, lungs and visual impairment will be affected.

It was said that no one would be more than 400 m away from a bus stop, yet after a public meeting in Drimnagh on Thursday night we worked out that up to 43% of residents would not be within the specified 400 m range. There is a need for a review of public transport in the city and outer suburbs. The aim of the review should be to increase not decrease services for local communities. At a very minimum we should maintain existing services. The reality is the Dublin Bus fleet has been cut from 1,160 to 1,000 in the past ten years and buses now carry 27 million extra passengers. This review must be done with proper consultation with service users. There should be full consultation with those who provide the service, rather than management, as they know the service. They are the people who will make sensible suggestions as to how the service could be made more efficient and more suited to the needs of communities.

The privatisation of 10% of bus services will go ahead even though Dublin Bus tendered 5% less. A new tendering process will be put in place. There is a belief that the seven new transport spines will be used to tender out the services to private operators. Private bus services do not want to know about routes going through estates with ten people on them.

I thank the Deputy.

I will finish on this point. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, or the Government, have the power to scrap the process. That is what should be done. If the Government does not stop the process then thousands of people will be on the streets protesting as they are very angry and members of the Government will get it in the neck.

BusConnects is one of the flagship investments that will be delivered by Project 2040, the ten-year national development plan that was launched by the Government earlier this year. Reports show that approximately 70% of people travelling into Dublin city each morning do so by sustainable transport and public transport, which is very welcome. More than half of public transport trips are by bus and there are 136 million passenger journeys every single year. All the NTA is proposing to do is to improve those services to allow people to spend more time with their families, learn a foreign language or do whatever it is people choose to do in their spare time instead of spending hours on public transport.

The one point on which I agree with Deputy Joan Collins is that there is a need for a review. That is exactly what is intended. We have a need for full public consultation, which is exactly what is planned. In June, the NTA published a discussion document that focused on some 230 km of continuous bus lanes across 16 core corridors or bus routes. That is expected to achieve time savings of between 40% and 50% on journeys. It is also the case that the routes and options are indicative at this stage. It is up to the NTA to conduct public consultation meetings following the publication of the public consultation report in July, and consultation meetings are being held the length and breadth of the city and in my area of County Meath where Dublin Bus looks after some residents. The purpose of the consultation meetings is to hear the objections, concerns or praise for what the NTA is trying to do but, more important, the NTA can feed the information back into what will ultimately be the end design. The end design may not be remotely like the initial public consultation document.

It is vital that all of the views raised at the public meetings described by Deputy Joan Collins are brought to the attention of the NTA so that when we get a final draft document to appraise and approve, collectively and publicly, we will have a better infrastructure for the public transport network in order that people spend much less time going to and from work, college or school every single day and that people will have a better work-life balance because they will be spending more of their free time doing what they want, as opposed to sitting on a bus in traffic.

When the Minister drills down into "BusDisconnects" she will see that is not what is happening. Communities are being cannibalised by the loss of routes. One example I heard about involved a person standing at a bus stop in Wellington Lane for one hour. There were three 54As, four 15As and four 150s, which is a total of 11 buses. With BusConnects there would be a combination of F1s, F2s and D4s, giving a total of eight buses for an area where it has been proposed to halve the routes. The NTA has not carried out a proper consultation. Meetings have not been advertised widely. Public representatives such as councillors and Deputies have advertised the proposed changes. There has been no consultation in Raheny or Drimnagh and that is the case across the city. I urge the Government to scrap the proposal. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport should do that. He has the power under section 26. There should be proper consultation. Bus drivers were not consulted by Jarrett Walker who came up with the proposals. The NTA's remit has been presented to the people. The plan should not be accepted. Money should be invested to ensure proper bus services and to develop the existing service. The proposal should not be accepted and it should be scrapped.

With the height of respect to Deputy Joan Collins, she said there was no public consultation and she concluded by saying that we presented proposals to the people for their consideration. There is a meeting for four hours in Dublin tomorrow and there is a meeting for five hours in Dunboyne in County Meath on Friday.

Who knows about those meetings?

There have been meetings day after day in recent weeks. First, the discussion document was issued in June and the consultation process report was issued in July. That is what the meetings are about. All Deputy Collins has to do is look back through the local newspapers in Dublin and see the notices of the public consultation that has been happening. The purpose of the project is to improve the public bus service that people relied on for 136 million journeys last year and to make it better and more efficient and to make more people value the fact that they can get on and off a bus in the quickest time to get to and from work or wherever they are going. The input from Deputy Collins is entirely valuable and wanted and that is why we are carrying out a public consultation process. The end game may be nowhere close to the beginning, but that is why our input is relied upon and is needed.