Ms Anne Graham:

Regarding the X8 route from Dublin to Cork, we have also done an assessment for the X12 route, as I have outlined. In the case of the towns mentioned, namely, Cashel, Cahir, Mitchelstown and Fermoy, we have assessed that there is a public service obligation, PSO, to provide services once the Expressway service has pulled out. We addressed that issue by approaching Bus Éireann to operate four services daily under the emergency direct award contract we have in place with it and other commercial operators to support their commercial services. We are proposing to fund four services daily in each direction under the emergency direct award. We will obviously continue to assess those services to see what the demand will be when we come out of these current restrictions. Our immediate plan, therefore, is for four services daily, and they have been operating since Saturday.