asked the Minister for Justice whether he is aware that considerable hardship and loss of revenue have been incurred by traders in the centre of the city area of Dublin arising from the resiting of bus stops recently; and that many of the traders depended almost entirely on the bus population for their livelihood; whether the new bus stops were fixed by direction of the Commissioner of the Garda Síochána under section 85 of the Road Traffic Act, 1961; and if he will request the Commissioner to direct CIE to restore the bus stops to their former positions in cases where it can be shown on turnover figures that genuine hardship has been caused.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Resiting of Dublin Bus Stops.
37.
While the Commissioner, Garda Síochána, has statutory powers to give directions as to the location of individual bus stops, those powers could properly be exercised to overrule the wishes of CIE only if it became necessary to do so in order to ensure that a particular bus stop did not create a serious avoidable traffic hazard or obstruction to traffic. In all other cases, the decision as to where bus stops should be placed is a matter for CIE and the recent re-siting of stops which was necessitated by the introduction of one-way traffic in certain streets in Dublin was carried out by CIE on that basis.
Some re-siting was of course essential since bus stops cannot be located on the right hand side of one-way streets but, in so far as there may be any room for flexibility, the decision, as I have said, is one for CIE.