Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Kent and thank him for his presentation. Like my colleague, Deputy Carey, I want to impress upon Mr. Kent the necessity for him to engage with the NTA in the provision of that long-awaited service for the town of Ennis. It is something that has been in the offing for a long time and Mr. Kent's skills and understanding of what is involved would be helpful to the debate. Hopefully, Mr. Kent can address that.

I will also address the issue of the service that was discontinued from my own part of the county, from Whitegate, through Scarriff, Tulla, Broadford and onwards, to Limerick. I thank Mr. Kent for his engagement and for reversing that decision. Unfortunately, it should not have happened. When Bus Éireann is offering some good news, we all get the press release. It is important, too, that Bus Éireann engages with us when it intends to change a service. As others have said, it is appropriate that some of the routes are handled by Local Link rather than through Bus Éireann. Mr. Kent probably needs to engage the NTA and Local Link a little more to ensure that we do not have that drop in service as was talked about there.

Deputy Carey referred rightly to west Clare. That is being resolved through Local Link. There was a conversation with Local Link, probably, a month or six weeks in advance, which meant that there would be no discontinuation of a service. That is the way to go when Bus Éireann is changing its services and I recommend that.

I also want to recognise Bus Éireann's staff and Mr. Kent for what they have done for us through the pandemic. That has been really helpful to consumers.

I am glad Mr. Kent raised the issue of the Portroe to Limerick service. It is just across the water in County Tipperary but it has potential positive implications for County Clare. Mr. Kent may be familiar with the twin towns of Ballina and Killaloe and I would hope that he could see some possibility in that service taking in Killaloe. As the service transverses from Portroe to Limerick, a loop into Killaloe would enhance the service greatly, would give many more people an opportunity to avail of the service and would see greater passenger uptake.

Quite some time ago, Bus Éireann had a plan to introduce bus rapid transit in and around Limerick and onwards to Shannon. Has further consideration been given to this or are there any plans in Bus Éireann to consider rolling out bus rapid transit between Limerick city and Shannon Airport?