Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With the withdrawal of Aircoach from 8 April 2024, and the X20 service in 2021, on the Dublin to Galway route, those services have been stopped. We currently only have Citylink, which goes every two hours between Dublin and Galway and services the towns between those two cities. This Commencement matter was intended for the Minister for Transport. I am frustrated. I raised this in 2021 and again last year, when I said there is definitely a need for more services. What happens? The commercial provider, Aircoach, stops the service in April of this year.

I went onto the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan website. When that plan came out, I had a campaign in Galway and Roscommon and I talked about the need for additional public transport services in our rural areas. I did videos and I linked in with community groups in the region. It is great to see some of our Local Link services going from Castlerea to Mountbellew to Ballinasloe, but we have a Local Link service that goes from Ballinasloe to Loughrea when there is no connectivity from Loughrea to Galway.

We do not have a Local Link that goes from Ballinasloe to Athlone. Does the Minister of State know the hospital, the emergency department and the maternity service for the city of Athlone? It is Portiuncula University Hospital, which is a level 3 acute maternity hospital. The Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan, on the very first page of the lovely slide on its website, refers to connecting medical and educational establishments.That is well and good but how is it getting done? I want the Minister of State to take this message back because I have had it with the fact that I call for additional services and that the Government is supporting additional public transport but yet the commercial provider has removed a service it was providing. Now the Citylink service is every two hours. We have a train station - are we not fortunate? The train station is 2 km from the hospital. If you are expecting and going for a maternity check-up, you have the joy of making your way to the train station in Athlone and the additional joy, if you do not meet the Local Link bus to bring you to the hospital, of walking those 2 km.

I received an email from the assistant director of nursing in Portiuncula. She expressed concern around student nurses being able to get to work. These young people may be trying to get from Galway. They may work in UHG or Merlin Park and are trying to get to the hospital in Portiuncula to do their shift. Maybe they make their way into Galway, get the train from Eyre Square to Ballinasloe and have to walk, if they do not get the Local Link bus, another 2 km. They are on their feet all day long.

I do not know what else to say except there is a lack of investment in the west. I was in Raheny station at quarter to nine last Thursday in Dublin city centre. Four trains passed me by in three to four minutes. How can we say we have equal access to public transport? It is not the case. When we look at every parameter that needs to be considered here, including CLÁR and areas of deprivation, I can point to communities that have no access and cannot get into town to collect their pension or for social activities.

We had a motion here last week about loneliness, anxiety and isolation. The west of Ireland is one of our most deprived areas and this is a just transition area that has lost jobs through Shannonbridge but somehow, the Department of Transport is saying communities in the west do not need those services. I have talked to Local Link managers of services in Westmeath and Dublin that cover the Roscommon, Westmeath and Longford area, and to the Local Link managers in Galway. They would like to extend those services. They are willing to consider it but need funding. They need the nod. It is in the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan about having additional services between Athlone and Ballinasloe.