James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My thanks to the Minister of State for the feedback. I will offer some simple suggestions to her in terms of giving people a greater impression on reliability of public transport services. This is a big problem in rural towns and villages, especially in my constituency. Live feedback signs would help. I would really like to see an opportunity for Bus Éireann to put in place live feedback signs, like they have in Dublin for Dublin Bus services, in some of the rural towns. It would give people the impression that they know when the bus will arrive. That comes up repeatedly. I get many calls to my office from people who are unsure whether they have missed the bus or whether it is coming or on the way. There is no reason places like Killeagh and Castlemartyr, which are being serviced by Expressway and Bus Éireann PSO services on a main arterial route connecting to Cork city, should not have this infrastructure.

Another area where we could make fundamental changes to transport structure in Cork is the fare structure. The green commuter zone area is not spread out wide enough throughout the county. This impacts not only my constituency but well into other areas around the city. Towns are being locked out of accessing cheap fares. The consequence is that people do not want to use the services because there is no financial incentive for them to do so. That is very important. We talk about just transition and we need to allow people that opportunity.

I wish to stress one point again. Roads funding for small rural and local roads in the Cork County Council area is a major problem. I appeal to the Minister of State to engage with the council on the matter. I do not like having to tell people their roads cannot be repaired or fixed while they are paying road tax and other taxes and charges. For many people it is difficult to understand why they can cross the border into Waterford and drive on perfect roads while in County Cork, because of a lack of funding in Cork County Council, the roads are not as good as they could be. Our national roads in County Cork could be far better too. I look forward to engaging with the Minister of State on that matter.