Mr. Conor O'Donovan:

The Deputy is correct that we did a determination last year following the withdrawal of the commercial operator in Athenry. We designed a service, which was to realign an existing service, as the Deputy knows. That went out to Bus Éireann in November last year. This year with Bus Éireann, which can speak for itself, there has been a big emphasis on improving capacity, punctuality and reliability across the entire network. It has to focus its resources but it can talk about that in more detail.

With regard to the service in question, we are looking at trying to get it in place before the end of the year and for Athenry to have more frequent bus services. There are also some rail issues going on there. Sometimes with these things, delivery can be quick, while at other times, it can get dragged out a little.