James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are not too many people in the Cabinet I would trust to pilot a Massey Ferguson but I guarantee that the Minister is one of them. Her comments are very welcome. It is good to know that rural Ireland has somebody at the table, like her, with the commitment to try to address this issue. She eloquently put it about having the awareness, for the likes of us in rural constituencies, whether it is Deputy Griffin in County Kerry or others in constituencies across the country, that this is a very personal matter to rural households. It is their equivalent to an urban family of public transport. It is their way to and from where they live to where they work and where their children go to school or training. If they farm, it provides access to and from the fields. It should be treated with the seriousness it deserves. This scheme has been successful but when it comes to County Cork, it is about the issue of resoucing. It is a pertinent point that County Cork is number three, even though we have the longest rural road network. It needs to be number one.

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