Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

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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