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

I thank the Minister of State. The Ceann Comhairle outlined earlier the tendency at times for departmental officials to abdicate responsibility in certain policy areas and I think this opening statement attempts to do that at the very beginning. It clarifies that the Minister for Transport and his officials are not involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services, but they do set the policy. They do set parameters and targets. I have great admiration for the work the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is doing in this area and he has set very ambitious targets for effecting that modal shift and getting people out of their cars and onto public transport. However, if the people of Loughrea have no option to do so in the latter part of each day, after 6.30 p.m., the NTA is failing in its responsibility to implement that policy. I strongly argue that the Minister has a responsibility to ensure that those charged with delivering public transport options across the country need to be held to account by him and his officials.

The Minister of State also outlined that a funding package of €611 million was secured, which is again most welcome work on the part of the Minister for PSO and Local Link services. I have been arguing for quite a long time now that the PSO support needs to be extended to an operator. The Minister of State has outlined that there are two operators on the service already: Citylink and Healy Bus. Why can they not be asked if they are willing to operate a service later in the evening for the people of Loughrea and, if so, that the Department is willing to subsidise them? I know there may be issues around tendering and state aid but I am sure we could streamline the process to the greatest possible extent.

The latter part of the reply again outlines some very welcome developments that are happening in Galway city, completely unrelated to the lack of connectivity between Loughrea and the city. I thank the Minister of State for being here. I urge him to engage with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and to impress upon him the importance of putting in place an adequate bus and public transport link between Galway city and a town approaching 8,000 people so that people can get home after 6.30 p.m. in the evening. That is all we are asking for. It cannot be that difficult to achieve in a country with the resources we have and with the clever people we have working in the provision of public transport.

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