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

I thank the Independent Group for an excellent discussion this morning, and for the motion.

A few months ago, the Minister continuously announced a decrease in the cost of transport services, mainly in and around Dublin. That suits his constituents, but we have to drag him here tooth and nail through the Dáil to give that 20% decrease that he gave to the people of rural Ireland using the private bus operators that are out there trying to deliver a service to rural Ireland. Now the Minister has announced that he will do that, but the divil is in the detail. We have not found out when that is to happen. Is there an exact date? An announcement is beautiful and the Government is plentiful with announcements, but when things are happening on the ground is what we do not know about. That has not happened, as far as we are concerned. That is a fight for us. If there is any decrease, it will happen in the cities but not for the rural operators.

I questioned the Minister here recently about what kind of extra services has he given to west Cork since he came into office and there have been none. He is talking about two down the road. One of them is already in operation and I do not know why he is offering that.

We have a great Cork Local Link but that can only provide as much services as it is afforded to do so by funds. Bus Éireann is often critical, but nobody in Bus Éireann has ever sat down with me and told me about the company's plans. However, West Cork Connect has plans. I accuse the NTA of disconnecting rural Ireland. West Cork Connect wants an every-hour on-the-hour bus service from Skibbereen, Clonakilty, Bandon, Inishannon to Cork and it has been refused that service. They took 1,000 people last Friday to and from west Cork and left loads of people at the bus stop. This is the NTA's decision that it will only allow a service every two hours instead of a every hour that they can deliver, and will deliver. They will bring people to west Cork and take people to the city where they want to use public transport. We are being continuously disconnected totally. They wanted to provide a service from Goleen into Skibbereen several times a day and the NTA refused them. Now we will hopefully succeed in getting a route - Kinsale, Belgooly, Riverstick and Ballinhassig.

The NTA continues to disconnect west Cork and I, for one, will not take this continuously. The Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, needs to listen, not look away, when we are talking.

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