James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That would be very welcome. This would take tens of thousands of cars off the road. The journeys are very significant.

If we look at the traffic numbers in Dunkettle or on the southbound or northbound lanes in the Jack Lynch tunnel in the evening and morning, we will very quickly see precisely what I am getting at. I appreciate the point about designing the demand around centres but Cork bucks the trend. Historically, the population of the urban core of Cork decreased, but it rose significantly in the commuter towns around the city, such as Midleton and Carrigtwohill, which was the fastest growing village, now town, in Ireland. New towns are planned in Water-rock and major housing developments are going on there. That route is getting busier and busier and the traffic is getting worse and worse but nothing is servicing that connection under the tunnel from east Cork, even though a huge proportion of that commuter traffic is using it.

If I might be critical of one thing, I acknowledge it is hard to serve everybody but Bus Éireann held an information night in the Metropole on Tuesday night and, as part of that, representation from my office attended. None of the presentation related to Cork county. It was all focused on the city. I am anxious to get cars off the road where it is possible and where we can put in a proactive service that people will use. As I said earlier, the witnesses are all an example of this. If a bus service is put on in the morning, people will use it and it will be full. We want to try to get that addressed.

We need to see a better Local Link service as well. The villages I am thinking of in particular are Lady's Bridge, Ballymacoda and Cloyne, which have very limited bus services. Lady's Bridge village has one bus that leaves at 10.15 a.m. but there is no return bus unless you come back on the 260 coming into Castlemartyr. I would appreciate if those villages could be looked at in the context of Local Link service. The report I have is good. When the services are introduced in east Cork, we use them. They are a little pricey but we use them. We do need to get the additional capacity in Youghal.

My other ask is that we would please look at putting in a proper service that will connect Ringaskiddy, with all its pharmaceutical plants and the Port of Cork, to Mahon and the Carrigtwohill, Midleton and Youghal urban core. If we do that, we will remove thousands of car journeys from those roads every day. If a morning and evening service leaves early enough, that will help a lot of the people who work shifts in pharmaceuticals. Cork has one of the largest pharmaceutical hubs not only in Ireland but in the world and there is huge demand. Tens of thousands of people work in pharmaceuticals in Cork alone, between that Little Island down to the Ringaskiddy belt, but bus services are just non-existent going out of the tunnel. The consequences of that are congestion, increased numbers of cars and having to spend €260 million on the Dunkettle interchange. I think the public would appreciate an option in that regard. Younger people, in particular, who are moving into the new houses we are building in east Cork, where thousands of new homes are being built, would like to be able to live without the expense of a car. A car is a necessity in Cork, however, because if you are travelling to Ringaskiddy or to the tech employers in the south ring road, there is no proper bus connection unless you go into the city and out again, which would add an unnecessary 20 or 30 minutes to your commute. I would appreciate it if the witnesses could look into that.