Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise an issue briefly. We must flag the fact that there needs to be a policy to the effect that services will be provided late in the evening. We will be commemorating the centenary of the First Dáil on 21 January 2019. The general election took place on 15 December 1918 and the results were not in until the end of the year, with Christmas in between, yet those involved managed to set up a Dáil, with translation and stenography services and everything else in place, within 21 days. That monumental decision 100 years ago will be commemorated by this institution in January. I approached Bus Éireann on the issue of getting late night services to Carraroe, although it could have been to any Carraroe in the country, because the last bus leaves Galway at 6 p.m. In early spring, Bus Éireann put a proposal to the NTA, and the service was meant to be in place in September. Bus Éireann assured me it was ready to rock and roll. If the first Dáil could be set up within 21 days, will our guests explain why, as I have been informed, it will take until January to put this service in place? Bus Éireann has just put in a revised timetable. Will somebody explain to me what has gone wrong in the past 100 years? We could set up the First Dáil in 21 days and we cannot reconfigure a bus timetable to provide a vital service, which has taken eight, nine or ten months to set up. Something is wrong in this country. Nothing seems to get done.