Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Government is quite rightly encouraging people to use public transport. Some new services, which are welcome, have come on stream, including in my constituency Cavan Monaghan. The 109X Cavan-Dublin service operated by Bus Éireann lacks capacity to meet the demand particularly leaving Dublin at peak times from 3 p.m. on in the afternoon. Constantly, commuters bound for County Cavan are left behind at bus stops on the north and west side of Dublin as buses are full in many instances shortly after leaving Busáras. Leaving people standing at bus stops for ages and ages is not acceptable. Typically, I receive complaints, as do Bus Éireann workers at local level, from commuters who have been in Dublin for hospital appointments, for work or students attending DCU or TU Dublin. People who leave their homes in Cavan in the early hours of the morning to travel to Dublin are entitled to have a reasonable expectation that they can get a bus home according to the published bus timetable. In far too many instances this is not happening. I have been highlighting these problems for some time. Additional capacity directly to Cavan is clearly needed at peak times at least. Bus Éireann and the National Transport Authority need to put that much-needed additional capacity in place.

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