Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Climate change is such a global matter that we believe we need to think big but we have to bring it back home. The Deputy spoke about rural areas and I was thinking about rural areas I know. I was thinking we could bring it back to the Mizen Peninsula, including Goleen and Schull. I could speak to my colleague, Ms Griffin, as she comes from Schull and would have a direct interest in it. We could all speak about it locally. I was trying to remember whether it was PJ Sheehan's famous quote that the land west of Schull was good for nothing but briars, bullocks and bachelors. I cannot recall exactly but I think it is the Bus Éireann 243 bus that goes once a day in Goleen. That does not really work and we need something more frequent to connect Schull to Ballydehob, Skibbereen, Bantry and elsewhere.

There is the prospect of this coming. Connecting Ireland is a new strategy being organised by the National Transport Authority to look at exactly how we can service areas like the Mizen Peninsula, the Beara, the Sheep's Head or any of the peninsulas. We are going to have to be innovative and creative in that. We have committed to 81 new buses in next year's budget for rural bus services and Local Link. We must achieve efficiencies so the likes of Goleen and Schull can benefit with increased patronage and connection to medical and health systems. We should not be paying for two or three different transport needs when we can amalgamate them and start to get efficiencies and really good rural public transport that way.

The National Transport Authority is developing a new strategy in Connecting Ireland that is designed to address exactly what the Deputy speaks about and, to my mind, it will serve places like Goleen, which has 400 or 500 people, on a fitting and regular basis. It should fit into the wider development of the area.