Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Our Government is doing wonderful work in rolling out public transport options, both in urban and rural settings: the Bus Connects scheme in urban areas and Connecting Ireland in rural areas. However, there is a major inequity that needs to be addressed. Let us take, for example, the town of Loughrea in County Galway. It has a population approaching 6,000 people. Its only public transport link to Galway city is a bus service, and the last bus leaves Galway city for Loughrea at 6.30 p.m. each evening. It cannot serve the needs of nurses, shift workers, students or people simply wanting to socialise in their local city. I ask the Minister to engage with the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the NTA to expedite the delivery of additional services for Loughrea, which is just a 30-minute drive from the city. If you live in Dublin city centre and you want to take a 30-minute trip out to Swords for example, there are 18 additional buses after 6.30 p.m. in the evening. Loughrea has no options, and this inequity needs to be addressed.

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