Speaking in the Dáil today, Deputy Joan Burton called on the Taoiseach to take the necessary steps to ensure that the 41X can use the Dublin Port Tunnel before he leaves office.

The Taoiseach responded only by saying that the Dublin Transport Authority Bill will be published in a few weeks’ time, but gave no indication that he would press the Minister for Transport to deal with the matter urgently.

“While the Taoiseach still holds his office and represents the north side of Dublin, I wish to ask him about transport matters, specifically the Dublin Transport Authority Bill. Dublin buses are barred from using the port tunnel, which means people from the Swords area can spend up to half an hour extra trying to get to work in the city centre.

“The tunnel is open to private buses but the taxpayer paid for it. It is not open to the public bus service that is the major service provider for taxpayers. Will the Taoiseach address this matter with the Minister for Transport? I do not think solving this issue requires the enactment of the Dublin Transport Authority Bill. There has been much dawdling because various pieces of bureaucracy must be overcome. Will the Taoiseach address this matter before he leaves office?

Speaking later, Deputy Burton added that “this situation has been going on for far too long. It’s a scandal that the Port Tunnel is open but that access to it has been restricted exclusively to private bus operators on some routes. As a result, people living in the River Valley area of Swords are spending an extra few hours every week needlessly stuck in traffic.”

“The Taoiseach insists that solving this problem requires new legislation, but the fact of the matter is that all we need is for the Minister for Transport to give the green light. He could do that with the stroke of a pen but instead he is insisting that Dublin Bus should operate the 41X as a commercial route.

“Dublin Bus are prepared to run the service on the same basis as all their other bus services, but this doesn’t seem to be good enough for the Minister. How can we have a Minister in charge of public transport when he doesn’t even believe in public transport?”

Deputy Joan Burton has criticised the Minister for Transport for his ideological fixation with private buses which now leaves bus commuters from River Valley and surrounding areas in the lurch as the 41X is still banned from using the Port Tunnel.

“I asked the Minister in the Dáil last week to review his decision to ban the 41X service from using the Port Tunnel. In his response, which arrived yesterday, he made it quite clear that his priority lies with protecting a private sector monopoly, not on allowing Dublin Bus to provide the best possible service to the people of River Valley and other estates along the Forest Road.

“Quite frankly, this just isn’t good enough. How can the Minister expect people to understand that they have to spend an extra 40 minutes on the bus every morning just because the Minister has an ideological fixation with privatisation?

“It is also hard to see how the 41X would be in direct competition with the private operator in question as the private operator doesn’t even serve River Valley. In fact, if people want to use the private bus, they have to hike twenty minutes to Airside on the other side of Swords and then pay 3 euro for the privilege. People with tax-saver commuter tickets are particularly hard done by, having already shelled out in many cases for a yearly Dublin Bus ticket.

“It’s a shame that the Minister is throwing up bureaucratic road-blocks to running the 41X through the Port Tunnel. I would only hope that when Dublin Bus jumps through the necessary bureaucratic hoops, he doesn’t continue to allow his ideological preferences to get in the way of common sense. He must allow the 41X to run through the Port Tunnel without insisting that it shed its public service function.

“For all the problems facing the Port Tunnel, this is one that could be solved with the stroke of a pen if only the political will was there.

“Unfortunately, this is symptomatic of a wider problem. I understand that Dublin Bus have a raft of new routes in the pipeline for the Swords area, but in many instances they are being told that private sector monopolies have to be protected. Swords commuters are losing out big time as a result.

“The whole rationale for introducing private operators into the bus market was to improve the bus service. If this is the best he can do, I think the verdict of the people living in and around River Valley will be swift and clear: this approach to transport policy is a shambles. We have a ridiculous situation where the Minister for Transport doesn’t seem to believe in the concept of public transport, never mind giving it his full support.”

Deputy Joan Burton, TD for Dublin West, which now includes the River Valley area of Swords, has slammed the Minister for Transport’s recent decision to ban the 41x from using the Port Tunnel.

“Having granted a licence to a private operator to run a Swords bus service through the Port Tunnel, and having said that he would consider the Dublin Bus application to do so, I was hopeful that the Minister would come to his senses and let the 41X use the tunnel“ , Burton commented.

“Thousands of Swords-based commuters are suffering unnecessarily long commuting times, whether because buses have to travel all the way into and out of the airport on the way to the city centre or because they can’t use the Port Tunnel. The Minister had it within his power to address this problem but has refused to do so in an effort to protect the effective monopoly of the private operator.

“People living in and around River Valley, for example, are faced with either persisting with a bus that takes up to half an hour longer because it can’t take the most direct route or hiking twenty minutes to Airside to take a private bus and then pay for 3 euro for the privilege. People with tax-saver commuter tickets are particularly hard done by as there is no facility for tax refunds on private bus services.

“It is only fair that a certain proportion of express, peak-time commuter buses, serving the different areas of Swords, have access to the Port Tunnel. This is the only way that all commuters in the area can get a real express service to work.

“The Port Tunnel is a valuable piece of public infrastructure, years in the making and at great cost to the taxpayer. The least we can expect is that public transport users can avail of it. This decision flies in the face of all the noises this government makes about supporting public transport, avoiding traffic gridlock and reducing carbon emissions.

“I will continue to press the Minister in the Dáil until commuters from the River Valley area of Swords get a fair deal.”

Deputy Joan Burton, TD for Dublin West, which now includes the River Valley area of Swords, has called on the government to remove the last obstacles in the way of running the 41X bus service through the Port Tunnel. She has been advised by Dublin Bus that they are waiting since March 2007 for approval for this from the Department of Transport.

In reply to a question tabled by Deputy Burton in the Dáil the Minister for Transport responded that he would not consider this issue until a prior application by a private bus operator to run a bus route from Swords to the city centre through the Port Tunnel had been dealt with.

“Thousands of Swords-based commuters are suffering unnecessarily long commuting times, whether because buses have to travel all the way into and out of the airport on the way to the city centre or because they can’t use the Port Tunnel”, Burton commented.

“Now that a private bus operator has been granted a licence to use the Port Tunnel, the Minister has said he will consider the Dublin Bus request, but hasn’t set any deadline for this. The infrastructure is already in place – it’s just the question of the stroke of a pen to reduce commuting times for thousands of Swords commuters. This foot -dragging exercise is disgraceful.

“Over the longer term, we need to see a step-change in the provision of public transport to North and West Dublin with the fast-tracking of projects like Metro North. Metro North will be the acid test when it comes to delivery of the Transport 21 programme – we’ll soon see whether this was a concrete, deliverable plan or merely a cynical electioneering ploy.

“An integrated public transport system, comprising an improved bus service and the new Metro North, will support the continued economic and social development of Swords long into the future – but only if the government starts to get serious.”