McDowell says bus route consultation is a sham

THE public are being kept in the dark about controversial plans to overhaul the capital’s public transport system which involve felling thousands of trees and the compulsory purchase of hundreds of private gardens to make way for new bus lanes, Senator and former attorney general Michael McDowell has said.

Plans by Bus Connects – the National Transport Authority’s programme to improve bus services in our cities – to divide the capital into a series of lettered travel corridors would involve chopping down 3,000 trees and the acquisition of 726 gardens. The public has made 13,000 submissions as part of a public consultation process to An Bord Pleanála.

But Senator McDowell said the concerns of citizens are being ignored in the wake of a series of private meetings between the NTA and the national planning authority.

He told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘Answers are now needed about why implementation of these plans continues while Dubliners and elected representatives are left outside the door. These plans are being finalised without them.

‘It looks as if the “consultation” is really an exercise in spin. Two unelected bodies are going into a private conclave about the fate of our suburbs and city centre. How does local government play any part in this?’

Senator McDowell’s attack will increase political unease over the proposal, which has united residents on both sides of the Liffey directly affected by the plans.

Referring to the huge public interest in the plans, he noted: ‘It’s a matter of some concern that despite claiming to continue to review the views of the public, the National Transport Authority has embarked on a series of private meetings with An Bord Pleanála in order to progress the detailed plans they have prepared.’

Senator McDowell added: ‘This opaque and premature process completely disregards the views of Dubliners who submitted their views to the NTA in their sham consultation.’