Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a number of separate transport issues relating to my constituency of Tipperary. We constantly hear of the need to move towards a more sustainable, greener form of transport, yet Tipperary is losing services, left, right and centre, and a lot of what remains is unreliable, inefficient and needs major improvement. The people of rural Ireland deserve adequate public transport links. Nenagh and Roscrea in north Tipperary lost the Bus Éireann X12 service at the end of January. This was the main bus route that linked north Tipperary to Dublin and Limerick. Outside my constituency office in Nenagh where a bus stop is situated, I would see the crowds getting on this bus service every morning. Reducing public transport services that run through two major towns in the north of my constituency is not what a just transition is about. In the south of the county, the people of Cashel and Cahir in particular have been given some reprieve as the X8 Dublin to Cork route has been granted permission to continue, but the new reduced timetable in place to serve these towns is not permanent or guaranteed to continue beyond Covid-19.

With regard to the Ballybrophy train line, Roscrea, Cloughjordan, Nenagh and Birdhill have a train service on the Ballybrophy line that is unreliable, inefficient and slow. I understand the Minister had a productive meeting with the North Tipperary Community Rail Partnership a couple of weeks ago and that he committed to engaging with Irish Rail with a view to determining if it is possible to have train speed reviewed and increased, and an additional midday service introduced on the line. In 1962, the steam-powered train serving this line could complete the route in one and a half hours. In 2021, it takes the train two hours to complete the same journey. Line speeds are simply too slow and services need to be increased.

Tipperary town needs a bypass and I respectfully ask the Minister to engage with other Ministers, local authority officials and representatives of Tipperary town to ensure that it is included in the national development plan. The people of Tipperary town are currently living with the fact that their main street forms part of a major road on which 70,000 vehicles travel each week. This needs to be addressed as a matter of priority.

I believe the Government should engage with ride-sharing apps, such as Uber, to investigate the potential of introducing such a system in rural Ireland. Such a move has the potential to massively increase connectivity in rural towns and villages, which could help to save the local shop or pub in rural areas, and is something that needs consideration.

I ask the Minister for his intervention in order that my rural constituency will not be left behind as we move to a more sustainable, greener way of living. Tipperary deserves a just transition in this process, particularly in the context of transport. I ask the Minister to: intervene with Bus Éireann in order to reintroduce the X12 and X8 services for the people of Tipperary so they remain connected to our major cities; continue to support and engage with the North Tipperary Community Rail Partnership as they work to improve services along the Ballybrophy line; ensure that the Tipperary town bypass is included in the national development plan; and engage more with ride-sharing apps, such as Uber, with a view to introducing such services in rural Ireland.

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