Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer. When we speak about public transport Cavan does not have a rail service and I will come to this later. This means we are dependent on a bus service. There is a regular hourly bus service to Dublin every day coming from Donegal and through Cavan and Meath and on to Dublin. I have raised this issue on countless occasions and I have received all sorts of promises from the NTA. The capacity on the 109X returning from Dublin to Cavan is a continual problem. People are left standing at bus stops every day on the hourly buses that leave after 3 p.m., 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. and sometimes the later ones also. People could be waiting up to three hours to get a bus service home. Bus drivers have raised this constantly with Bus Éireann, which sends it to the NTA. They all blame each other and nobody does anything about it. I have received promises from the NTA that it would address it and put in extra capacity at peak times. It has done nothing about it. A bus driver told me he had eight seats on his bus for the last stop out of Dublin, which is Blanchardstown, and after eight people got on the next four passengers were a woman and three children. It nearly killed him to have to leave them on the side of the road but there was nothing he could do. Many older people and people with medical conditions take the bus to Connolly Hospital but because it is the last stop out of Dublin they are often left standing there for an hour or sometimes more, and there is no proper covered bus stop for when the weather is cold and wet. If this could be addressed it would be absolutely brilliant.

We have a pretty good Local Link service in Cavan. It is improving all the time and there is always room for more services. One thing people have often asked me is whether there could be more stops in between towns and villages. For example, one service goes from Cavan to Ballinagh and on to Kilnaleck and back again. This is brilliant but people living between the two towns have to go to one or other of them to get the service. There are safe places where the bus could pull in. I have asked the NTA to look at this and it says it has done so and that it has gone to the council. I cannot get an answer out of anyone on whether this can be approved. If it could be approved it would be great. Perhaps at weekends the night-time service could be extended. This might help businesses such as the local pubs as people would have a way to get home.

Due to the lack of rail and a limited bus service we are dependent on our roads. We have approximately 3,000 km of local roads and they are in an atrocious condition. The money coming in is very limited. Last year in one engineering area of roughly 1,000 km of local road only 13 km could be repaired. This was all the funding that was provided. We need ten times this to address it. The roads are deteriorating and disintegrating in front of our eyes.

There was a train service in Cavan and Monaghan but there is none now. Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Fermanagh, Tyrone and this area is included in the all-island strategic rail review but it is very late, coming after 2040. It is to connect Armagh to Cavan and down to Mullingar. We really would appreciate a rail service. It was foolish that the one there was closed but, unfortunately, there was no foresight. I ask this to be brought forward as it would be very welcome.