Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Over the past few months, the Minister for Transport has been making one bizarre announcement after another. The first was that Irish people should grow salad on south-facing windowsills to ensure food supplies during Covid-19. The second was to tell drivers to slow down on the motorway to save fuel. The third was to have one car in the village to which people from rural communities should cycle and use to go to work. The fourth was to stop people from burning turf and he will not arrest grannies if they do so.

All these weird announcements are, one way or another, being supported by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. It is making the country a laughing stock throughout the world. Another damaging announcement made by the Minister for Transport recently was the 20% cut in public transport fares, as well as the proposed 50% cut in fares for students and young people availing of those services. One would say this should be welcome. If it goes ahead, however, it will have a disastrous effect in rural communities, as no local commercial operator can avail of the 20% or 50% reductions. I raised this in the Dáil with the Minister as soon as he announced the 20% decrease in early April, but he still railroaded ahead with it, wiping every private operator off this decrease, leaving many of those with struggling businesses asking if they can survive.

The local commercial or private operators, as we all know, were still reeling from that shock when the Minister announced in the last fortnight that he is railroading ahead with a 50% decrease in fares for students and young people. Again, this is to be welcomed. Again he has nothing put in place for private operators to pass this decrease on to the students mainly in rural Ireland. He said that technical and funding issues were preventing him. This 50% decrease will benefit those who travel on Bus Éireann, the Luas, trains, the DART and Dublin Bus. These are all Dublin city-type transport, which I do not want to begrudge.

There are private operators, such as West Cork Connects which carries 80% of the passengers on west Cork routes, has buses leaving Skibbereen and Bantry every hour on the hour every day passing through Clonakilty and Bandon to Cork on one side and from Dunmanway, Ballineen and Innishannon and to Cork on the other. This service has opened up west Cork. This local commercial operator is employing many staff in west Cork, but it is not allowed to pass on the recent 20% decrease, or the proposed 50% decrease, to west Cork students. This is not just putting that operator's business in jeopardy, but also that of Wexford Bus, Cobh Connect, Aircoach, GoBus and Citylink. All these operators, and many more, are facing the same wipe out. This is another gaffe by the Taoiseach’s Minister.

On top of this direct hit to the young people of rural communities who depend on private operators to connect their communities, can the Taoiseach tell me why his Government wants to wipe out private operators? Unlike Bus Éireann, the Luas, Dublin Bus, the DART and the train, these private operators have to pay their own staff, fuel and daily wear-and-tear on vehicles. Instead of encouraging these operators, in the context of the so-called Connecting Ireland dream, the Government is going to disconnect transport completely in rural Ireland. Why was what should have been such a positive announcement by this anti-rural Government not held off until everyone, rural and urban, could avail of this decrease?

This Government’s decision will see private bus companies being forced out of business by State-backed cuts and leave them contemplating taking legal action. Not only is this unfair, but it is anti-competitive as well. Seeing as the Minister for Transport cannot get this right, will the Taoiseach step in and treat everyone in rural and urban Ireland the same when it comes to this decrease in fares for our youth?

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