Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, for taking the time to be here. This is an ongoing issue. There is a greenway from Midleton to Youghal which is nearly finished. The railway used to go down there. This is about connectivity. I submitted a parliamentary question to the Minister for Transport asking if the National Transport Authority, NTA, or Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, would consider a park-and-ride model of transport to run from Youghal to the train station in Midleton, along the N25, for connectivity. It would service Youghal, Killeagh, Castlemartyr and go into Midleton. Unfortunately, the response I got from the NTA was that, building on the work developed as part of the Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy 2040, the park-and-ride design office, PRDO, is carrying out a demand analysis to identify the zones on the main traffic corridors. It goes on to say which bus connects and so on. It states that, based on the work carried out to date, the PRDO is not currently considering a park-and-ride model of transport to run from Youghal to the train station in Midleton and that, instead, the connecting bus or connectivity by public transport to Cork city is best provided by bus and coach services that connect Youghal to Cork.

The buses run from Dungarvan. A bus ticket from Dungarvan to Cork is cheaper than the fare from Youghal to Cork. That is if people can get on the bus at all. It is madness. The problem here is that if five or six people get on the bus in Youghal, it is full and nobody can get on in Castlemartyr or Killeagh. This means children cannot get to school. More important, people have hospital appointments and so on. One family contacted me last week. They had to pay €100 for a taxi to go from Youghal to Cork University Hospital for an appointment.

The funny thing about it was that I have written to TII and the NTA. A report, the metropolitan transport strategy, was published just recently. It mentions connectivity from Cork to Youghal and beyond six times. Even though the greenway has not been opened yet, the strategy talks about connecting Cork city to Youghal by train, eventually going on to Waterford. It also mentions proper connectivity. The all-Ireland review was recently published by the Department of Transport and, as I said, connectivity was mentioned in it. Every time I ask about this, I am told it is not needed. There is talk of people's carbon footprint and so on. That stretch of the N25 is a dangerous road but it is the only way people in the area can travel. Castlemartyr has major tailbacks in both directions because there is a pinch point on the N25. Many more cars could be taken off that road if the NTA invested in one or two additional buses.

It does not make sense for connectivity that on the Cork-Waterford border, there is practically one bus, the Waterford bus, serving Cork city and the entire catchment area from Youghal to Killeagh and Castlemartyr, which drives past Midleton train station, goes on to Carrigtwohill and then on to the city. It is being borne out of frustration for so long. My office staff are getting very frustrated. I understand why the railway did not go there. Development charges have a lot to do with it, as does the lack of industry. It is to be hoped Youghal will pick up on the tourist side of it.

My issue is that it makes common sense to connect Cork with Waterford. It is mentioned six times in the new all-Ireland rail review report. I cannot understand why the bus routes cannot run from Youghal to Midleton. People could buy their tickets in Youghal to go to Cork, the bus would drop them in Midleton, they would go up on the train, do their business, come back down, get off the train, hop on the bus and go back through whatever village they want. Is there any way we can get a quick review of this matter?

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