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

I absolutely agree with the Deputy. Part of Connecting Ireland must be integration so that all the transport services connect both in ticketing and in timetabling. As I said earlier, we might also have the integration of different services such as health, like we did in County Leitrim where we integrated the health public transport need with the wider public transport need. That is important to recognise. I also agree with the Deputy about the real benefit and strength of Local Link and the strong roots it has going back with community organisations and working with other State organisations. The funding has gone from €12 million in 2016 to €29 million this year. There has, therefore, been recognition of that.

As I said, I am very keen to support further innovation. As part of the process in which we are engaged at the moment, and in which I am sure Deputy Pringle must have been engaged in his own county, we are looking at what routes might be the best to develop. That consultation process is appropriate so people identify the issues. I can well imagine the traffic from Donegal town to Killybegs in the morning. We are being open and flexible in looking at new Connecting Ireland routes to try to identify where there is unmet demand and whether we can change the routes to meet it. There is also a need for us to be innovative to design new demand-responsive transport options. That is one of the options at which I am looking.

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