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

I absolutely agree with the Deputy. I will check up on this. I would be disappointed if we were to lose that bus service to Loop Head. I know the area well. I presume the good people of Kilrush, Kilkee, Carrigaholt and so on are very concerned. What has happened with those local services is that young people and local people are flocking to them. I will follow up and look at that.

As it happens, I was talking to the Deputy's county colleague Senator Garvey just before coming to the meeting. She made the point, to take County Clare as an example, that from where she is based in Inagh, something like 12 buses a day now go north, connecting to Ennistymon and beyond, up to Lisdoonvarna, Ballyvaughan and so on. It has been transformative and is working. I agree with the Deputy that we put in services to make sure that the Ukrainian visitors were able to access local towns and villages. I will look at the details of the Loop Head service. It would be disappointing, having put it in, to have to take it out. Maybe the NTA and the local authority have a good reason for that. Generally speaking, however, while Loop Head is beautiful and a fantastic tourism area, that service is more for locals.