Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I concur with Senator McDowell on the vaccine. I am certainly willing to take it because I believe in Professor Luke O'Neill and Professor Sam McConkey. I have great faith in these people. Most of the time medical people are right, not all the time but they are the experts. I am more than willing to lead by example with the vaccines and I hope everybody else will do the same.

I also want to raise the issue of Bus Éireann, as did Senator Garvey. I welcome the creation of new jobs and new routes. A short time ago, we had the removal of services, particularly for many rural areas. It is a very positive move by the Government and the Minister. However, there is still an issue, particularly in parts of south Roscommon and east Galway, where an awful lot of routes were closed down. I call on the Deputy Leader to contact the Minister with regard to all of the parts of east Galway, such as Ballinasloe, Creagh and Moore, into Ballydangan and Athlone and other parts of south Roscommon where, unfortunately, in recent years we have lost a service that was very important to people in isolated areas. The local bus stop has gone and it is not coming back. We have a duty and responsibility to stand up for the people affected. There were great promises about the extension of Local Link, which is a very good service operating in many parts of the country, but the right thing to do when we are expanding services is to take into account those places that have lost their bus services in recent years. Many parts of Roscommon and Galway have good services. I live along the M5 and we have a fantastic service from Westport to Dublin, which picks up people along the route and takes in almost all of the towns along the way. Bus services have disappeared from many parts of south Roscommon and parts of east Galway. People are annoyed about that. I welcome the news that more than 15% of the new posts are held by women. This is a great improvement and we need more women to apply. I really want to see services re-established. Perhaps the House will consider writing to the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on establishing something to get services moving again.