Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late, as I had other business to attend to.

My concern centres on Laois and south Kildare.

Laois and south Kildare have been abandoned by Bus Éireann. The old N8 route through Abbeyleix, Durrow, Cullahill and south of Abbeyleix is now not served, and that applies all the way down into County Kilkenny. The old N7 route of Mountrath, Castletown and Borris-in-Ossory, which was then the Pike of Rushall and Borris-in-Ossory route is now gone. The N78 route comprises Athy, Ballylinan, Pedigree Corner, Doonane, Crettyard and Castlecomer. That service was due to go this month. We held some meetings in Athy, including one that Ms Graham and Mr. Nolan attended the other night, where agreement was reached that Bus Éireann would stay on the route until 31 June. After that, the buses use the motorways and almost all the geographical area of the county and a huge tract of south Kildare will be left without any bus service. That is unacceptable. The towns and villages in the region have been abandoned. The remaining few on the N78 route of Athy, Ballylinan, Pedigree Corner, Doonane, Crettyard and Castlecomer are about to be abandoned.

We must organise a public transport system that works. I recognise one cannot run a bus up every boreen and that one cannot have the same level of service in a rural area as one does for a busy urban route. That said, it should not be beyond us to provide a basic bus service to run along the main arteries and to connect people from local villages with urban locations for their hospital appointments, work, college and whatever else. We must have an integrated approach and link up services while taking account of HSE hospitals appointments, working hours, etc. We also need an integrated approach to building a bus service. If we stick a plaster on the problem, all we will do is limp from one crisis to another. A service will be provided for a while but when it is discovered that it does not work, the service will stop. Therefore, we need to plan strategic routes and use them strategically in terms of times and so on.

Promotional work must also be done. I am sure Mr. Martin Nolan of Bus Éireann will tell me differently and that it has spent a certain amount on advertising. Local advertising of a bus service has not been done. I have not seen it done but perhaps it has passed me by. I suggest that bus timetables and routes be published in parish newsletters.

We need bus stops because there is often only three bus stops every 15 to 20 miles of road. We need secondary bus stops at places like Pedigree Corner and along such routes, and the same applies for Pike of Rushall and all of those areas.

We need bus shelters. It rained very heavily as I travelled here this morning. I have noticed that the bus shelters in Dublin are state of the art. I argue that rural Ireland should get small areas where a bus can pull into and bus shelters can be located. I visited the North last weekend and little perspex shelters have been erected all along the roadway of rural routes. We must provide the same in the South or people will not use the bus service. We need to have a planned integrated service.

The immediate issue in County Laois is that it is not served by public transport. The immediate threat is to the bus service on the N78 route and, therefore, we need a plan. I understand, from what the National Transport Authority said that its main remit is licensing. Somebody must solve this problem. The Department will not do it or cannot do it and civil servants do not see it as a job for them. We need to plan strategic routes which I see as a key job for the NTA. If the NTA does not have the resources to do so, then it is up to us, in these Houses, to give resources to the authority. That is the most important task. We must also knock heads together to get a co-ordinated approach.

I have questions for each organisation. What subvention does Bus Éireann receive? It gets subvention for social welfare passes, and rightly so. How much direct subvention does the organisation receive from the Government?

My next questions are for the National Transport Authority. Its role is licensing, but what else does it do? What has it planned for County Laois and south Kildare? The issue of the N78 route must be addressed urgently. We must retain the service and the witnesses know that from their attendance at the public meeting in Athy.