Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I raised some of these questions with the Taoiseach last week under promised legislation and he said, rather contemptuously, that it was never the intention that every single town and village in the entire country would be provided with transport. He also said, however, that the Government would endeavour to ensure that where there is connectivity at the moment with Bus Éireann, such connectivity will remain notwithstanding cuts in that company. I put it to the Minister of State that this is a very loose formulation which allows for a situation in which the four to six connections a day Bus Éireann might provide a town or village can be blown out of the water by Mr. Hernan and the management of Bus Éireann with the sanction of the Minister, Deputy Ross, and the Government. They will then get some private operator to connect to the town once a day. Is the Minister of State prepared to give a commitment that any single service of Bus Éireann's which might be cut, albeit none should be, will be replaced bus for bus and journey by journey and that one connection will not replace five or six in any given day?

See this speech in context