Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

Fair play to the civil servant who padded out that answer for the Minister because my question was not about BusConnects. Rather, it was about a specific issue. The Minister dealt with that issue in a couple of sentences and the information is very similar. They have been told the project will be delivered in quarter 3 of 2026, which is next year. Given that people have been told it is subject to operational readiness and the recruitment of drivers, realistically no one expects the service to be delivered in 2026. It could take even longer.

As for the problems this is causing, some of my constituents have to get up at 4 a.m. to get to the airport. It is something that takes people 15 minutes to drive to at a good time during the early morning or late at night. I have done so myself. As the crow flies, it is very close by and yet, as people do not have one direct route, they have to get two buses and travel for an hour and a half to two hours, or even longer for those who are from the Ongar area. Some 20,000 people work in the airport and, as the Minister knows, there is discussion about expanding it but people cannot get there.

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