Mr. Conor O'Donovan:

The Deputy raised the issue of engagement with commercial operators in Cork. He mentioned Mr. Damien Long. That is part of a policy across the board of working with the commercial operators to work out and work through how we can improve services along a particular corridor. In the case of the Skibbereen to Cork route, we worked with Damien Long through our public transport regulation section to see if we could enhance the services, increase the frequency and also have better integration between services. We are continuing that process. It is ongoing. The Deputy mentioned Baltimore to Castletownshend and rerouting. We have had a few petitions from Tragumna, just west of Castletownshend, about rerouting the bus through there. Sometimes, when designing routes, we are trying to maximise the frequency and the utility of the bus and there is always a trade-off between the service being as direct as possible but also trying to serve areas. We are always trying to get that balance right. There may be times when it can be rerouted, with a small delay, but there are other times when a ten- or 15-minute delay in a service could result in lower frequency across the whole service. We always have those trade-offs. We do engage very closely with Cork Local Link. It has grown its patronage from 50,000 to 250,000 in the past six years. We have expanded out to Goleen and Schull and these different places. We are always open to ideas, and we are always listening. We get a lot of parliamentary questions in. Sometimes we say no, sometimes we say yes, but we look at every single question we get, and we then go back and discuss it with Local Link representatives and get their opinion. It is quite a collaborative affair.

The Deputy mentioned other places like Aghyohil and Drinagh. I am aware of those issues, and we are in discussions with Cork on that, but it may not be part of the solution the Deputy mentioned, between Dunmanway and Timoleague.