Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I would love a guidance note on bus stops. If the matter is left to local authorities then services will be haphazard because some of them do not believe in providing rural bus stops and they have too much to do anyway. That is my personal experience from dealing with lots of local authorities in my previous job. The NTA must outline a minimum target for local authorities because if it is left to them, then the provision might never happen.

Bus Éireann is responsible for timetables. Can the NTA put it under pressure to update the timetables because they are four years old?

I wish to raise the separate issue of the Ennis bus roll-out, as the NTA delegation is present. We had a meeting with the NTA and discovered that it will wait until decisions are made about bus stops and all the infrastructure before starting the tender process, which takes another nine months. That is a ridiculous situation. Why does the NTA have to wait until everything is done before issuing the tender?

Local Link bus services are very visible yet teens do not know about them. I have convinced loads of teens who never knew about it to avail of Local Link buses and think the service is for old people. Therefore, I suggest that a Leap card that provides free travel is given to every 14 or 15-year-old and that the service is promoted using a cool teen thing on TikTok or social media. In general, teenagers are dying to get away from their parents and the teenagers that I told about the service have used it ever since.

Lastly, the NTA plan says that its plan will see a 25% overall increase in rural bus services. If we were serious about people in rural Ireland availing of buses instead of driving their cars then the percentage should be 250% or 500%. The NTA must have a greater vision if we are deadly serious about reaching targets. Rural drivers will get blamed and then the Green Party will get blamed for making them drive everywhere. If we want people in rural areas to transition to using buses then we must give them other choices.

As I have said, services for the disabled are a priority but there are other ways, such as putting bike racks on buses. I have costed such a provision and insurance. There are other options available. It is not a case of choosing one or the other because you can do both.