A petition with nearly 3,000 signatures from Dublin commuters demanding better public transport was presented yesterday to the Minister for Public Enterprise by Earthwatch which has named her the "Minister for Gridlock".
Members of the environmental organisation collected the signatures in one afternoon. In a statement, Earthwatch said many names were from commuters who had been waiting at bus stops for more than half an hour for buses that were supposed to run every 10 minutes.
The petitions collected demanded better public transport and at least a doubling of the number of buses in Dublin.
Ms Sadhbh O'Neill of Earth watch said there was overwhelming public support for increased investment in public transport. However, Ms O'Rourke had failed to translate the frustration of commuters into any realistic increases to Dublin Bus's subsidy despite a huge Budget surplus and an economic boom.
Ms O'Neill said Dublin City Councillors could, without consulting anyone at all, propose a £500 million eastern bypass tunnel under Sandymount Strand as a way of alleviating local congestion but local authorities seemed to have no influence over public transport.
The Minister must be made to take responsibility for the appalling public transport services in Dublin, she said.
Since her appointment as Minister, Ms O'Rourke had scrapped the original Luas plan to put it underground and had failed to increase Dublin Bus's subsidy to meet demand.
The £500 million which would be needed to build the eastern bypass would create more than treble the number of buses in Dublin. The current policy favoured roads instead of buses. Spending money on more and better roads simply increased the demand for transport rather than containing it, Ms O'Neill added.