Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will not elaborate further, but I am glad that the Minister of State has not read some of the prepared reply into the record. It is pure dynamite to say we will subsidise up to the Border, given that since 2016 we have been saying we do not want a hard border on the island. Now a Department is subsidising up to the Border but not further. Incidentally, if one is going from Letterkenny to Dublin, the fare is subsidised. Anyway, it is dynamite. The Minister of State's suggestion about the shared island unit is an excellent one.

In the brief time I have remaining, I want to raise a specific issue in relation to Creeslough. We will have time set aside in two weeks to discuss in more depth the situation in the aftermath of the Creeslough tragedy. The specific issue is that due to the ongoing investigation, the main route through Creeslough is closed. Of the two pick-up and drop-off points for the community from Creeslough and even into Dunfanaghy, one is Falcarragh and the other is Termon. I am asking tonight if we could get somebody from the Department of Transport to reach out to a member of the community - I can facilitate that - to try to introduce a short-term shuttle service for people who wish to avail of this transport.

People who avail of public transport do not have a car, so they are looking to get taxis or to get neighbours to take them farther distances. This is very frustrating for so many people.

I would ask for a contact person in the Department to give me a ring me tomorrow. I can link them up with a member of the community to put that service in place. We are probably only talking about a week. I do not know how long the investigation will continue; it is potentially another week. I do not have that information, as it is a prerogative of the Garda.

One of the answers I will get back will be there has to be a tendering process. We have to use our common sense here. People are still dealing with this enormous tragedy, and the tragedy will be with the community for a long time into the future. It is about what we can do now in the short window we have available to fix things with a bit of common sense, such as a person picking up the phone and trying to get this sorted. I think it can be done. In fairness to Donegal County Council and all the Departments, they are all working hard to try to do the right and best thing. This is just one little thing that could help enormously.

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