Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú)

I thank the Minister of State for coming.

This subject is close to my heart. When I became a councillor in 2016, I realised that the two biggest issues in our county were a lack of roads funding and a lack of public transport. Since then I have not stopped banging on doors looking for what the people of Cavan deserve in infrastructure. I live in Bailieborough. It is the second largest town in the county and we had one bus service, a Link bus service, that left the town to go to Kells at 9.30 a.m. That departure time meant that it was not a service for students or people going to work, so I do not know what it was. I therefore started a campaign to expose how badly served the county was with public transport, bearing in mind that Cavan does not have any rail network.

I was informed by the NTA in 2021, after four years of campaigning, that Bailieborough would get a Local Link service connecting the local towns of Shercock, Cootehill and Bailieborough with a regular bus service in Virginia that serves Cavan and Dublin. That was never implemented because the NTA decided a whole-of-Ireland rural mobility plan would be started. I felt at the time that if we were going to do it, we might as well do it right and appreciated it would take another few years. Cavan County Council held a special meeting with councillors in December 2021 and we put together submissions for the entire county. I was the lead on that and along with other councillors I also made individual submissions and encouraged local groups, such as development associations, men's sheds and hen's sheds, to do the same. I also assisted the community and enterprise section of Cavan County Council to put together its submission, which clearly showed the huge gaps in public transport in our county. There was huge engagement by people. Cavan made 53 submissions to the public consultation while Longford made three and Monaghan made six. Cavan was to the fore in getting opinions out there about how under-served we are. The connectivity is very poor.

The list of proposed new enhanced routes was launched with the Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Plan 2023. It included six routes for Cavan, which was a high percentage of the planned routes. It was great news and we felt that it would be implemented. I had seen many plans come and go and felt this one really would happen. Of the six routes proposed for Cavan, only three have been implemented and are operational. I have a document that set pout the timelines for when the other three services were to be implemented. They still have not been implemented although the date they were to be operational was quarter 3 of 2023.

I therefore have a question for the Minister of State. There is still no direct route to Dublin from Bailieborough and there is no express or direct route from Cavan to Dublin either. When will the enhanced route 108, the proposed extension from Bailieborough to Canningstown and Cootehill be operational? I want a timeline for its commencement. It was proposed the new Local Link service from Cootehill, Shercock and Bailieborough to Virginia would commence in quarter 3 of 2023 and it is still not operational.

I support Senator Blaney in what he said about the A5 and N2 routes, which are extremely important for the north west as well.