Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have been flagging transport issues in the House for months now. Transport was severely impacted by the difficulties of Covid-19, but people want to hear solutions and action. To date, we have seen bus routes cancelled or reduced in capacity, the total collapse of the aviation sector and serious issues exposed in our school transport scheme. Locally, in my constituency of Clare, I have been informed of a very concerning situation faced by people with disabilities who use the Dulick Enterprise Centre, in Ennis. I have been told that these people have had bus routes and times changed on them recently, which is leaving service users abandoned for up to three hours, waiting for a bus home following their morning classes. It gets worse. Because of the Covid restrictions, these people cannot stay in the centre while waiting for the bus as it is not safe to do so. I have been informed that the Local Link service applied for additional funding to service this request but that it has been denied. This is outrageous and we need to have this issue addressed and rectified immediately.

Moving to aviation, this morning on Radio 1 the CEO of the Shannon Group reiterated that passenger numbers at Shannon Airport are down 97%. This is causing serious issues in the region and we need the Minister to understand this fact. Tourism locally has declined and we are hearing threats that Ryanair and Aer Lingus will pull their bases out of Shannon Airport. If that happens, the key may as well be turned on the airport. I have spoken to pilots and cabin crew in the Shannon base in recent days and they stated that morale among staff in Shannon is on the floor and their mental health and well-being are being severely impacted. I have written separately to the Minister on this matter and I hope his response is comprehensive and solution-based. We need to start testing at our airports and work towards the reopening of key routes to open the mid-west region to keep business links. We need to ensure we offer direct supports to this sector for these workers.

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