BusConnects consultation in Ballyfermot
Deputy Bríd Smith says BusConnects is proceeding without proper community consultation in Ballyfermot and that the Department is avoiding responsibility. The Tánaiste says the NTA has been consulting, promises to raise the matter with the Minister, and asks the NTA to engage locally.
The BusConnects plan is ploughing ahead across Dublin. We in People Before Profit truly welcome improved public transport. I always advocate for free, frequent public transport as a means to alleviate traffic problems and to help climate initiatives. The Minister for Transport disagrees. Having said that, there are serious problems with how BusConnects is being implemented, mostly because the community - I specifically want to talk about the community in Ballyfermot - has not been consulted about major changes in infrastructure to their area, the loss of 50 mature trees, the compulsory purchase of public spaces and gardens, the loss of a roundabout and, crucially, the loss of parking spaces at two rows of shops and the loss of access in and out of the Ballyfermot Road. We had a huge protest there last Saturday with about 600 people turning up. People thought that was small but I thought it was amazing for this day and age. It was not something divisive; it was positive. We need to get the NTA to engage with the community.
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The Department, which takes a hands-off approach, says that the NTA deals with these matters and it does not.
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We need an intervention by the Department to tell the NTA to talk to the community.
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At the end of Covid, there was a day in the civic centre, when everybody was not coming out, to show maps etc., but there was no consultation on the infrastructure.
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You are off again. Please, can we not have a conversation? Just answer the question. You were asked a question.
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The NTA has been consulting communities across the country. I have been involved in some of the consultations in respect of BusConnects in Cork, for example. We managed to get many issues resolved but not all of them. I will talk to the Minister. I am sure the NTA will engage if there are specific items, like those raised by the Deputy in her presentation. I will ask the NTA to consider them and to engage with the local community.