Irish Examiner view: Plan must help every sector

BusConnects Cork

Dermot O'Leary, General Secretary and Brian Hannigan, General President at the National Bus & Rail Union conference at theMaryborough Hotel, Douglas, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

The National Transport Authority’s BusConnects plan for Cork continues to provoke what might euphemistically be termed lively debate in parts of the city which will be affected if the plan goes ahead.

Earlier this week, Taoiseach Micheál Martin criticised the plan strongly, and a key constituency has since weighed in — the union representing those bus drivers who will, in time, be driving the routes concerned.

It was interesting to hear the thoughts of Dermot O’Leary, the general secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union, on the Cork plan because he could draw on the experience of dealing with a previous BusConnects plan in Dublin.

O’Leary’s criticisms of the approach of the National Transport Authority in the case of the Dublin plan were skillfully made, and one of his sallies will have many Cork residents nodding in agreement.

The union leader said the original Dublin plan made no provision for its impact on the aged, those with disabilities, and schoolchildren, and in time the plan was revisited; the NBRU ultimately welcomed the revised plan.

Similar complaints about the Cork plan may have the same effect, and a sequel to the original, BusConnects Part Two, will surely need to be produced.

And with good reason: Some of the more vocal advocates for BusConnects should bear in mind that this is a regional transport plan, not a sectoral transport strategy. The intention here should be to facilitate everyone in society rather than specific interests or pressure groups; it’s a truism of broad-based urban schemes that universality is one of the failsafe metrics when it comes to measuring their success.

If BusConnects doesn’t facilitate every sector of society, then it cannot proceed as constituted.