Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I note the Leader has taken green principles to her heart of late, and I wish to raise the issue of bus transport. As part of the programme for Government, one of the headline figures is €1 million a day is spent on walking and cycling, which is positive, and on public transport. The issue that arises, however, is that there is no point saying we have additional bus services if the buses are not usable. I wish to draw attention, as I have done before, to route 431, which is from An Cheathrú Rua to Claremorris, and route 432, which is from An Cheathrú Rua to Clifden. These are scheduled Local Link services, so they do run and you can see them running. However, they do not pick up any people because they do not stop except at the main villages. For example, they stop at Ballyconneely and Roundstone, but they do not stop anywhere in between on the multitude of byroads, such as the Mervue Road or any other road. If you live halfway between Ballyconneely and Roundstone, you have two choices - you can go to one or the other. You can drive to Ballyconneely to get the bus to go to Clifden or you can drive backwards to Roundstone to get the bus to go Ballyconneely. It is nonsensical and the National Transport Authority is aware of this. It said it may look at additional fixed routes. That is an improvement but it still does not solve the crux of the problem, which is that it is not a flexible service. We need a flexible service that picks people up at the head of byroads and outside people’s houses. That is what we want to do. We want to encourage more people to use public transport and to leave their cars at home. Many people are past the age of driving or would rather not drive, and there are schoolchildren doing after-school studies who used to be able to get a bus but now cannot do so.I again ask for a debate on public transport. I ask the Minister to use his good offices and write to the National Transport Authority to see whether we can have flexibility in regard to individualised routes.