Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister ask Bus Éireann and the National Transport Authority to postpone the decision regarding routes 22 and 23 until the communities involved are consulted? I cannot see the justification for a situation where all the bus routes being developed are to bypass communities across the middle of the country. Services are being withdrawn in communities throughout the midlands. It appears to be a case of Expressway services from one side of the country to the other and forget about the people in the middle. I estimate that approximately 20,000 travel passes are being misused either fraudulently or otherwise each year. That is a significant amount of revenue lost to both Bus Éireann and the Exchequer. Surely it makes far more sense to focus on that than on the communities involved in this case. Does the Minister not agree that the provision of bus shelters along many of these routes would increase the number of people using the services? Bus Éireann has failed to consider the provision of bus shelters along many of these routes.

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