Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)

I thank Deputy Gould for raising this important topic, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy O'Brien. From the outset, I would like to clarify that the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport but neither the Minister nor his officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services.

The statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally rests with the National Transport Authority, NTA. The NTA works with the public transport operators, which deliver the services and have responsibility for day-to-day operational matters.

That said, I would like to reassure the Deputy that the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal. As the Deputy will be well aware, bus services in Cork city have, unfortunately, been experiencing significant reliability issues for a combination of reasons, including both driver availability issues and traffic congestion. The NTA and Bus Éireann are working together on the matter and are holding weekly meetings to review plans to rectify these issues.

There has been an increase in recruitment efforts, which have included open days and a number of online campaigns. There are currently a number of candidates in the process of completing their driver school training and following this, Bus Éireann expects to be in a position to fully operate their existing timetabled services in late November.

However, I understand that additional drivers are required in order for Bus Éireann to introduce the required timetable changes that would help in alleviating some of the issues regarding congestion and reliability issues seen on some routes. It is intended that there will be changes to the timetable along a number of routes on a phased basis as and when these drivers become available. A number of timetable fixes have been implemented on certain routes already.

Bus Éireann has advised that it has the necessary number of applicants within its recruitment pipeline to address the additional driver requirements outlined above. Its assessments factor in applicant attrition rates and mixtures of candidates with and without the D-category licence, as well as other relevant factors such as retirements, resignations and short-term absenteeism.

I can also confirm that as part of the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan, the TFI Local Link route 255 from Kinsale to Cork west was recently launched in August 2025. This new route 255 operates four daily return services between Charles Fort and the west of Cork city from Monday to Sunday. The new route provides peak-time services connectivity to Forthill, Kinsale College, Kinsale Community Hospital, Halfway, Ballinhassig, Wilton Shopping Centre, Cork University Hospital, Munster TU Campus and regional bus services.

BusConnects is a transformative programme of investment in the bus system providing better bus services across our cities, including in Cork. It is the largest investment in the bus system in the history of the State and is managed by the NTA. Planning for the implementation of the new bus network has commenced and it is expected that the new network will be implemented on a phased basis over the coming years subject to funding and resource availability.

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