Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)

If the Minister of State were to talk to my constituents in Greystones and Kilcoole, they would not be particularly in agreement with him about public transport being a good news story. They have seen an increase of 30% in their fares and children have seen an increase of 200%. It is very hard to sell that as a good news story to people in those towns, particularly when the train service for areas like Greystones, Kilcoole and further south in Wicklow is essentially a part-time service as we do not have services on the majority of bank holiday weekends.

I also want to mention that the services south of Dublin are due for major disruption on the bank holiday weekend of 2 June, which is the VHI mini-marathon weekend. The majority of women who go into Dublin for that mini-marathon and all of the charities that rely on them will be severely impacted by these service disruptions. I ask the Minister of State to directly contact Iarnród Éireann to ask it to reverse the decision. I understand the need for maintenance but on such a major event weekend, it is ridiculous that Iarnród Éireann is cancelling services south of Dublin.

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