Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)

The Minister of State is very welcome. It is great to have him here again. I am particularly delighted to get the opportunity to address through this Commencement matter an issue I am particularly passionate about. It is a matter I have been working on for a number of years, that is, the broader matter of the improved public transport and active travel facilities for the citizens of Limerick city and county.

Today we are dealing specifically with a proposal I have submitted to the National Transport Authority for the inclusion of Annacotty Business Park in Limerick BusConnects, which we hope will soon be commenced . The ambitious plans included in Limerick BusConnects are most welcome. I compliment the staff at the NTA, the staff at Limerick City and County Council and the many councillors across the metropolitan region who contributed to it as well as the very many stakeholders who contributed to the two years of public consultation and the development of the second iteration of the draft Limerick BusConnects plan, which became the finalised plan and was published in December 2023. It includes an increased frequency of bus services across Limerick city and suburbs, an increased number of new bus routes and the introduction of 24-hour bus services on some routes, facilitating the development of an all-day economy for the first time in Limerick. There is a 70% increase in the number of bus services to be provided to Limerick city and suburbs when Limerick BusConnects is fully operational. That moves us into the space of becoming a true modern, small but very proud and ambitious European city. We are very grateful for the work that has been done by all the agencies and public servants to date. However, I am talking to the Minister of State today about an important area that I and many stakeholders believe was omitted from those ambitious plans, namely, Annacotty Business Park. It is the largest indigenous industrial park in Limerick county. It is home to 33 businesses and 4,000 employees. They are going into and out of the business park every day and there is no bus stop there. I have engaged with the members in the park and their employees. There would be a huge appetite to see increased services, not just for the benefits they would bring right now to people who are working there but also for the future development of the park and the potential for the mostly indigenous businesses in the park to expand. As the Minister of State knows, if there are no public transport facilities for proposed developments, then we have to provide car parking spaces. Currently, businesses within the park are constricted in their expansion ambitions because of that.

The provision of this public transport loop would also have a beneficial impact for St Vincent's special school in Lisnagry, which has more than 500 people working and availing of the facilities there, and indeed for many hospitality businesses on the east side of Annacotty, including Finnegans bar and restaurant, which has capacity for 250 people seated for meals, is under new management in recent years and, with its great new energy, from an employment perspective and a connectivity perspective, could absolutely do with improved connectivity. I thank the Minister of State for his time and ask for his support in a trial expansion of facilities to the Annacotty Business Park, to measure the uptake in the services and the benefit to the surrounding area.