Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I raise an issue which is very important not just for my constituency but for many constituencies across the country, namely, public transport. The provision of public transport is something that has been highlighted in my constituency, where in the recent past Bus Éireann decided to cut back on some of the services it provides between Galway and Limerick. That service is route 51. It brings into focus the whole concept of providing public transport and how the National Transport Authority, NTA, which has the vested power to decide on these things, takes decisions to reduce services at a time when we are talking about climate action, bringing in a carbon tax and penalising people who have cars because they must pay more for fuel. At the same time we are now taking away services from people who would otherwise go to work on these buses, either to Galway or Limerick. If one takes Gort, Labane or Ardrahan, all of these areas are now affected by in that they do not have the same services they had. Thus services are not available in the evening for people who want to come from work in Galway or Limerick back to south County Galway. Likewise, Bus Éireann removed bus stops in Kilreekil for no apparent reason, other than it said people were not using them, but we must incentivise people to use public transport. We must also make it accessible to people with disabilities. How is this to be changed?

I have spent much time working with Local Link in County Galway, trying to create routes to feed into bus and train services, yet every proposal we put in is turned down by the NTA. I had very good proposals from the Caherlistrane-Headford area, and from Corrandulla to feed into this, to take cars off the road and get people to go to work on buses. The public transport is not there; it is not being provided. People are scratching there heads and thinking that they still need the car and that it is essential. The message coming from Bus Éireann to people in my constituency is that they must continue to use the car even more because the public transport will not be provided.

It is important we look at this when we are talking about climate action. I know well the Minister wants to deliver on public transport but we must see a plan on how that is going to be done so that in our constituencies we can tell people that this is the service they are going to get. Public transport is going to take cars off the road. If we are going to work with that, we need to start now and reverse the decision made by Bus Éireann.

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