Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

As I mentioned earlier I will now focus on rural Ireland and public transport in rural Ireland. I am a huge fan of Local Link and of Connecting Ireland. That policy is exactly where we need to be going. It is community-based, regular, efficient transport that is available to people who are living outside our major urban areas. My one criticism of it is that it is happening way too slowly and that there is not enough investment put into it. For example, in 2022, €5 million was allocated in the budget for Connecting Ireland, and this year it was €8 million, as I understand it. These are very low amounts of money when we compare them, for example, to the €50 million made available for electric vehicle funding. When we compare those different funding mechanisms we can see that very little funding has been provided for facilitating the Connecting Ireland programme.

I will give a very local example of where I see a major issue and a major need for local public transport that has not been provided. For five years I have asked the National Transport Authority, NTA, to fund a Local Link service that goes from Arklow to Brittas Bay, through Magheramore to Wicklow town and Greystones, and all of the little towns and villages on the way. It is a coastal route that is there during the summer. I have called for this primarily for safety reasons. Brittas Bay is one of the most popular beaches in the country. It is one of the most beautiful and one of the most popular beaches in the country. Every summer there is absolute chaos there and it is incredibly dangerous. Local residents are afraid to leave their homes because the amount of traffic that visits the area at that time is just incredible. I too have been stuck in traffic there. Cars are parked on both sides of the roads around the beach, leaving only one lane of traffic able to get in or out. We have lost a number of people on the beach because emergency services have not been able to get into them. Absolutely tragic situations have occurred because of the number of cars there. For five years I have asked the NTA to fund a Local Link service. A local bus driver, who would normally do the school routes, was available to do it during the summertime and for some reason that funding is still not being made available. I have asked again this year. It is my annual question to the NTA: "When will you provide funding for a seasonal Local Link service that would do the coastal route to facilitate and help to deal with those issues?"

When we consider Curracloe Beach, which is one hour down the road in Wexford, they have a seasonal Local Link bus. It is not the case that such a service is not provided. Curracloe Beach would not be as popular a beach as Brittas Bay and the issues in Curracloe would not be as dangerous. I just use this as an example of an area where funding, if it was there, could very easily make a big difference to the local community. I just use this example to show how I do not believe the focus has been on Connecting Ireland and investment in it. Will the Minister comment on why he believes this service has not been provided to date?