Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

I will oppose the withdrawal of public transport services from south County Laois and north County Kilkenny by every means possible. Bus Éireann's decision is outrageous and can be compared to removing the bus service from the south of Dublin city. If the plan proceeds, the towns of Abbeyleix, Durrow, Johnstown and Urlingford and the village of Cullahill will no longer have a bus service. There is no private service on the route, and the first stop will be Urlingford.

Bus Éireann receives a subsidy of €200 million a year from the taxpayer. It is also paid for bus pass holders at a reduced rate for each journey made. As Deputy Flanagan pointed out, we had a meeting with Bus Éireann representatives today and I raised the issue of a toilet break, because they are proposing a continuous drive from Dublin Airport to Cork city. The Minister of State knows the length of that journey. Not too many people would sit on a bus for that length of time without a toilet break, yet the company is proposing that there would not even be a toilet break at Josephine's Restaurant in Urlingford. In fact, people will have neither a tea nor a toilet break following these proposals. The company claims there is no commercial obligation, and I wrote to the National Transport Authority two weeks ago about this issue. The authority wrote back to me and stated there is no public service obligation to provide these services. We fleshed it out today at the meeting with the delegations from Bus Éireann and the NTA, and this was confirmed.

I ask the Minister of State to take this back to the Government. We must have a public service obligation on the N7 and the N8. It was confirmed for us that the Limerick route is also in danger of being lost, according to the CEO of Bus Éireann. We cannot wipe whole counties off the route. If all these towns are bypassed and only the motorway is used, there will not be many passengers. The proposition by the company is ludicrous. We need stops and passengers will use a good service when it is available.

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