Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister for the reply. We have seen that, where services have been provided, the increase in passenger numbers has been up to 50% on some routes. People want services to be affordable, accessible and reliable. I spoke recently to some students from UL who travel up and down to Kerry. On a Friday, the Dublin coach regularly does not turn up and they are left to get the next bus or even the bus after that. What is the Minister doing to address the situation? Is he monitoring the scourge of ghost buses, not only in Dublin but in the rest of the country as well?

In the recent revision of the national planning framework, there was an opportunity to address the infrastructural deficits. As has become the hallmark of this Government, another opportunity was missed because there is no national policy objective to address regional connectivity and transport specifically.

People who want to get public transport up the west from, say, Kerry to Sligo and beyond have to change buses a number of times. Even students, if one bus is late, are punished and have to buy another ticket, even though they are relying on the same Bus Éireann service to continue on that journey.

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