Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)

I thank the proposer of the motion. It is an important debate. Sinn Féin is ambitious for public transport, particularly in Cork. It is an area that has been the subject of a lot of attention recently. It has been a priority for us because we recognise that for Cork to be the fastest-growing city in the State, we cannot simply rely on more and more people getting into their cars. We need a 21st century transport system. There are number of elements to that. The first, in the context of the proposal, is the Luas. That is something we welcome. We have been calling for it proactively in recent years. Regarding what has been announced for the single route, we believe lessons need to be learned from the approach that was taken in Dublin. If there is going to be a Luas in Cork - and we all want there to be one - the timescale imagined is far too slow. It looks like it could be more than a decade before it begins to carry passengers. The matter needs to be expedited. We also need to ensure that Cork Airport is connected. We need to ensure that there are at least two routes connecting with each other and that we are not left trying to join things up afterwards. It makes absolute sense that it will connect the whole city because there are areas of heavy traffic in Douglas, Carrigaline and on the north side of the city. My colleague Deputy Gould has been vocal on this. That aspect also needs to be expedited.

That is for the medium to long term, and I hope it is expedited. In the short term, we need to get our basic bus system working. People right across the State, not just in Cork, get frustrated and feel that so many things do not work. Buses are almost the perfect symptom. Before I came down, I searched for the words "bus" and "Cork" in my emails. I just picked out two examples, because there are dozens if not hundreds. People indicated that they finish work at 5 p.m. and that what should be a 15-minute drive takes them an hour and ten minutes to complete every day. I was also informed that buses went missing three times in a row over the course of three consecutive days. This is happening constantly. Our buses need to be resourced with staff in order to resolve that.

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