Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In line with the whole-of-government approach, my Department and the National Transport Authority have been working on practical and meaningful responses to the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis. From the beginning of the crisis, newly-arrived Ukrainians have been able to avail of free travel from their port of entry to the end destination on any public service obligation or Local Link service.

Indeed, many commercial bus services similarly offer this assistance in getting people to a safe location.

I was delighted to announce last week the provision of emergency public transport services to refugees housed in rural or isolated locations to ensure better access to our local communities. This will be achieved through an acceleration of network improvements identified through the Connecting Ireland public consultation, including additional stops, route modifications and more services with the aim to increase connectivity. Areas such as the Ring of Kerry will avail of such improvements, in practice catering for both existing demand as well as responding to the increased pressures on services where the local population has grown after the humanitarian crisis.

Additional bus services will also be deployed to cater for those housed away from the existing public transport network. The NTA is examining options to provide transport from the Earl of Desmond hotel, where many refugees have been accommodated, to Tralee town. Such measures will provide better access to a range of amenities, employment opportunities and to onward public transport connections to larger centres.

A community transport fund is also being established to support occasional travel requests. This will be operated by the Transport for Ireland, TFI, Local Link offices and will enable our Ukrainian guests to join in the many activities that are available in our towns, in particular activities focused on youth, integration, culture and education. Collectively, these endeavours aim to support integration of our Ukrainian guests into the local communities that are hosting them. We will keep the issue of transport provision under review as this situation evolves.

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