Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Buttimer, back to this Chamber. We miss him but we absolutely wish him well in his new, really important role. I know, as I have been watching, that he has taken a lot of notes on the issues we have raised from right around the country. We look forward to having another interaction at a later time to see the progress made on them.

I thank all of those who have contributed to this debate. I thank all within the ranks of Fianna Fáil Senators for supporting this motion. It is the first Private Members' business of this mandate. We genuinely believe this is of such importance to all of us around the country that we really want to put the emphasis on it at this time.

Listening to the contributions it is very clear that this motion is supported by all and t we want to see public transport that connects places and people and that is affordable, accessible, reliable, efficient, available and safe. We have listened to particular situations and we all have a story to tell as regards public transport in our own areas. We have listened in the past few hours to particular calls for action from Kildare, Galway, Kilkenny, Dublin, Meath, Cavan, Louth, Sligo, Limerick and Cork city and Wicklow. Within that context we see how important public transport is to all of those counties and indeed beyond. We had 11 specific calls for action within our motion and, to be fair, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, addressed all of those in his opening statement. He then had the opportunity, along with the Minister of State, to listen to particular constituency issues.

I would like to address a point from Senator Boyhan, which was picked up earlier by my colleague, Senator Fitzpatrick, and that is to say we certainly have no objection whatsoever to providing public safety transport police. It was the previous Minister for Justice who at the time did not agree. The present Minister for Justice absolutely supports it. I wish to be very clear where the Fianna Fáil Senators are on that.

I thank everybody for their support and it is important that we have the opportunity down the line to regroup regarding all of the issues raised.