Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank and join with Senator Norris in remembering the late, great Mervyn Taylor. We were all very proud of Mervyn Taylor in the Labour Party and what he did for this country. As Senator Norris has said, it is very important to remember him and his family today.

On Senator Mullen’s contribution, today is the last day before we were to have the promised publication of the gambling control Bill. This was to happen on the last day of this particular month. I hope that we get to see that Bill and that we get the opportunity to debate it as quickly as possible for the benefit of many people. I join with Senator Mullen in calling for that.

I have been contacted in recent days by a growing number of parents in the town of Castledermot, County Kildare, whose children are attending secondary school and indeed a third level college in nearby Carlow. Not for the first time, these students have been left on the side of the road because the scheduled bus is full and cannot take them or any more passengers when it reaches the town. On Monday last, seven students were left standing on the side of the road in the town. What is all the more frustrating for them and for their parents is that all of these students had purchased tickets in advance, yet when they rang the operator they were told that the operator could not take any further passengers.

I have previously spoken in this House about the 880 route, which serves the town and nearby Carlow. Local Link has sought an extension of this particular route and I am told this is still with the National Transport Authority, NTA, which tells me it is waiting on funding from Government.

I raise with the Deputy Leader the need to debate rural transport here in the House and it is a call I have made before. Towns like Castledermot in south Kildare are crying out for more transport. I look forward to the Deputy Leader organising such a debate because the Local Link service says that it is at the pin of its collar in trying to provide more services.

Another urgent debate that we need to have is on rail transport and its costs. Over the past number of weeks I have been contacted by a growing number of students from south Kildare, who for reasons that my Labour Party colleagues have outlined here in debates in the past week and, indeed, through the introduction of Bills, are finding it impossible to get student accommodation any more in Dublin. Instead, they have to stay at home and take the train, which should be good news for them in that it may lead to them saving some money. The problem, however, is that stations like Portarlington, Monasterevin, Athy, Kildare town and Newbridge are outside the Short Hop zone and the students cannot use their Leap cards. In one such example, a young student from Monasterevin should be paying €27 per week with his Leap card and instead is paying €100 per week, so he might as well be staying in Dublin. We need to look at a mechanism where these students who are staying at home can use their Leap cards and are not forced to pay the full fare.

I would also like to raise commuter costs and the increased carbon footprint of those commuters who are getting into their cars every morning in Newbridge and travelling to Sallins because of the Short Hop fare. I am sure we can have that debate into the future but we need to have a debate on rural transport and to protect those students who cannot find accommodation in Dublin but yet are paying such high costs in trying to travel up and down there each day.