Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that and we all understand that is the intention and where we need to be going. The Minister, though, spoke of snapping fingers or having a magic wand. Clearly, the Minister cannot snap his fingers, wave a magic wand and improve public transport overnight. I understand this point. In the meantime, though, a car park with capacity for 5,000 cars has been sitting there empty for four years. It needs to be recognised that in the absence of alternatives, car parking spaces need to be provided to allow people to be able to use the airport. This is one of the critical problems we have. I understand the car park has been for sale. What I am asking is that the Government and everyone would get around the table and come up with a solution to ensure that at least the car park will be able to be used by somebody and that some provider will be able to provide car parking spaces for people to use at the airport. We do not want to see a situation like the one we had last year.

The Minister also mentioned buses. I have dealt with issues concerning buses, and I am sure Deputies from every rural area would tell him the same, where those going to the airport from different pats of the country have been full to capacity when people have gone to get them. Recently, I had an incident that a man in Ballyshannon contacted me about. Two elderly people were intending to get on the bus but they did not know that they needed to book seats on the bus in advance and that they had to go online to do so. They arrived at the bus stop with their baggage and were then unable to get on the bus. This man then had to put them in his van and drive them to the airport. We need to find a solution to this problem and ensure that Bus Éireann makes it very clear to people that if they want to get the bus to the airport, they need to book it in advance and that if it is full the company will put additional capacity in place because it is not doing this either.

See this speech in context