I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, to the House.

I thank the Minister of State for being here to take this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy O'Brien. It is good timing. We have another set of residents of Chapelizod and other parts of Dublin protesting outside Leinster House today. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, agreed with Deputy Cummins last Thursday in the Dáil that they should not have to, but I will tell the Minister of State why they are here again today. Hopefully, we can get to the bottom of it and get some movement on this No. 80 bus.

I raise the significant challenges the Chapelizod, Islandbridge and south Palmerstown communities have faced with the new No. 80 bus, which came into operation in October. It is now the only route serving Chapelizod village, having replaced the No. 26 in October. It crosses the Liffey at Bridge Street, travels south along South Great George's Street to Rathmines and terminates at Palmerston Park in Dartry. The new route significantly limits connection to the city centre and is a downgrade on the connectivity offered by the No. 26.

The No. 26 service went straight into town. It went straight into the city centre, down along the quays and stopped at Merrion Square. It provided the community in Chapelizod with a dedicated direct link to town, a connection to Heuston Station, both Luas lines and a short walk to the DART as well. It did have some reliability issues, but it serviced the community's needs, providing access to and from the city with only - and this is crucial - a 2% cancellation rate.

To reach the city centre, Chapelizod residents now have to transfer buses at Arran Quay where the C spine and other buses travelling along the quays are already full at peak commuting times, or try to squeeze onto the Luas at Smithfield which, as the Minister of State can imagine, is also full by the time it gets in there, or they can get off on South Great George's Street and walk into the city centre.

To make matters worse, not only does the No. 80 not bring them directly to the city centre, it also has one of the highest cancellation rates of all buses in the city, at 9.3% since its introduction in October. While some may think this is because it is a new route and that it will surely improve with time, it has not. Since the start of December, 10.5% of buses on the No. 80 service have been cancelled, while 11.4% of buses on the route were cancelled last week. This includes the unacceptable case of last Thursday, which saw six cancellations from town back to Chapelizod between 4.20 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. and seven back-to-back cancellations the other way, from Liffey Valley.

From the beginning of this year until the No. 26 service ceased operating on October 17, it was cancelled 799 times. The No. 26 was cancelled that many times between January and October. Since its introduction, the No. 80 service has been cancelled 831 times. That is 14 times per day. The No. 80 has been cancelled on more occasions in two months than the No. 26 was in ten months. This is according to the National Transport Authority's, NTA's, open-source data.

Acknowledging that the No. 80 service got off to a rocky start, as the NTA described it, it organised a meeting with public representatives to discuss a proposal to merge the No. 80 route with the No. 130 service that serves Clontarf and Talbot Street. This meeting appeared out of thin air, with no consultation with public representatives or, more importantly, the community. This proposed solution would not provide Chapelizod residents with the direct, dedicated link to the city centre that they need. It will instead add further strain and demand to an already broken route. While it would enhance connectivity to the city centre, it would in fact also extend the overall route of the existing No. 80 service from 17 km to 24 km, which is just going to add more delays and more cancellations.

One welcome development is that the NTA has made a commitment to expedite construction of the bus stops on the bypass, but, again, we need to make sure it will engage with public representatives for the area and the community to make sure we know what the design of this infrastructure will be and when it will be delivered.

I also had communication this morning with a group of residents in Chapelizod who are worried about their kids getting to school in Lucan. We need to look at getting that bus service back to Lucan instead of Liffey Valley. I call on the NTA to abandon this ill-thought proposal of merging the No. 80 route with No. 130 service, which will cause lots of harm, with communities not being able to get buses to and from town. I also call on it to reinstate the No. 26 route with a terminus at Lucan rather than at Liffey Valley. That is something I called for at that meeting with public representatives last month.

BusConnects should enhance our lives and not make things more difficult but, unfortunately, that is what is happening. I look forward to the response of the Minister of State and I hope she will go back to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, with these concerns.

I thank the Senator for raising this topic. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this important matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy O'Brien, with her and the Members of the House.

From the outset, I would like to clarify that the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. However, neither the Minister nor his officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. The statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public transport services nationally rests with the NTA. It delivers the services and has responsibility for day-to-day operational matters.

That said, I reassure the Senator that the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options, and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal. To support this objective, in budget 2026 the Department of Transport secured €940 million of funding for public service obligation, PSO, and TFI Local Link services, which was a significant 43% uplift from the €658.4 million secured in 2025.

However, I understand the Senator wishes to discuss the reliability and connectivity of the 80 bus route and the proposed changes from the NTA to that route. BusConnects, as I am no doubt the Senator is aware, is a transformative programme of investment in the bus system, providing better bus services across our cities. It is the largest investment in the history of the State and is managed by the NTA. The aim of the network is to improve the existing Transport for Ireland system through enhanced services, with high-frequency spines and new local orbital and radial routes.

As the Senator is aware, on 28 November, following customer feedback and engagement with public representatives, the NTA announced a two-stage plan to revise route 80. From early 2026, route 80 will operate from Liffey Valley to Chapelizod on a revised alignment along the quays, crossing the Liffey at O'Connell Bridge rather than Bridge Street and running through College Green and Great South George's Street. This temporary measure will improve access to the city centre ahead of the planned pedestrianisation of College Green.

In quarter 2 of 2026, route 80 will link with route 130, continuing along the north quays and O'Connell Bridge to Eden Quay and northwards through the city centre to Clontarf. This alignment will maintain a ten-minute peak frequency and provide new connectivity to the Luas green line at O'Connell Street and the DART at Connolly Station, offering passengers more options for onward travel. The NTA acknowledges that, for a variety of reasons, including city centre congestion, route 80 does not meet expectations following its introduction. I heard what the Senator said.

When rolling out phases of the BusConnects network, the NTA commenced monitoring of new services, identifying issues and implementing fixes, where appropriate. That is what the Senator has raised today. In planning the redesign of the network, the NTA considered Dublin City Council's plans to transform College Green and Dame Street into a pedestrian friendly plaza which will restrict east-west bus movements through College Green. That is why route 80 was originally routed through Bridge Street. However, customer feedback indicated that continuing along the quays to O'Connell Street would provide greater benefits, including improved bus priority measures and enhanced connectivity through O'Connell Street and onward transport services. The NTA has reviewed this feedback and agrees that change makes sense.

I thank the Minister of State for her comprehensive response.

I know this is not the Minister of State's portfolio and I appreciate her taking the Commencement matter, but I am really disappointed. I printed something this morning because I was afraid that what just happened might happen. The Minister of State has read, word for word, what was said by a Minister in the Dáil last week in response to questions from Deputy Jen Cummins on the 80 bus route. This means that the feedback, fixes and implementation the NTA says it wants to identify and hear about from public representatives are not relevant. If that is not stonewalling, I do not what is.

The Minister of State's reply is, word for word, the same as the response in the Dáil, right down to the turn of phrase such as "that being said" in the second paragraph. It is disappointing that the NTA has not reflected on what was raised in the Dáil last week. There is a reason I am raising this again today and it is that it has not gone away. I will go to a group of people outside Leinster House after this debate who are unhappy and the NTA has decided not to listen. The Minister of State mentioned a meeting, which I attended, and said it was about stakeholder engagement and engagement with public representatives. There was no engagement. We got 24 hours' notice of a virtual meeting and made suggestions which were not accepted.

I am not sure whether there is a communications dropout between the NTA and Minister of State. Again, this is not going to go away. It is probably a good idea for the Minister of State to bring as much as she can back to the Minister. I know he is not responsible for this on a day-to-day basis, but there will have to be a meeting between the NTA and Minister to get the bottom of this.

I thank the Senator. Obviously, I speak on behalf of the Minister. I would not like the idea to go out that there is stonewalling because I do not think that is the case.

If the Minister spoke about this last week in the Dáil, for me to echo his sentiments today is not unreasonable.

It is unreasonable.

I fully recognise that transport connectivity and reliability are hugely important. That is the case regardless of where one lives. One of the issues the Senator raised was cancellations. As with all previous phases of BusConnects, the NTA is carefully monitoring capacity, punctuality and reliability. Bus cancellations occur for a variety of reasons. It can be due to traffic congestion or a shortage of drivers or mechanics may prevent services from operating. I have looked at the notes and analysis that have been provided to me and they show that we are moving towards a target of 18% for place-of-employment reachability. There is a lot more here, which I wish I could give to the Senator. I certainly heard what she said. I will speak to the Minister, and the Senator and I can speak afterwards about the specific questions she wants answered. I hope I have provided some of the answers but if there is anything else, I am more than willing to listen and pass on the Senator's message.

I thank the Minister of State.

You are welcome.

I thank Senator Ní Chuillin and the Minister of State, who will stay for the next Commencement matter.