Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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55. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to provide an update on the roll-out of the Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Plan in County Carlow. [42027/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I think the Deputy will agree with me when I say that the Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Plan has been a huge success, with over 130 new or enhanced services introduced since 2022. This means that over 190 towns and villages have been connected to the public transport network, and approximately 500,000 people have access to new and enhanced bus services.

42 new connections have been provided to healthcare facilities, 34 new connections to higher education facilities and 49 of the new and enhanced services provide connections with rail services.

A total of 4.7 million passenger journeys were carried on Connecting Ireland services in 2023. This represents an increase of 110% when compared with patronage figures in 2019 and an increase of 70% when compared with patronage figures in 2022. To date in 2024, Connecting Ireland introduced 30 services (7 new and 23 enhanced).

There has been considerable investment in services throughout the country under Connecting Ireland, including in County Carlow, with the enhancement of Route 897 between Kilkenny City and Athy, Route 822 creating a new connection from Mountrath to Carlow, the new Route 887 from Carlow to New Ross, and the enhanced Route 880 from Carlow to Naas, which now operates seven daily return services Monday to Saturday and five daily return services on Sunday with a late evening return service on Friday and Saturday.

2024 is the third year of the five-year Connecting Ireland plan and more new and enhanced bus services throughout rural Ireland are planned for 2025.

The NTA have advised that they are currently reviewing public transport services operating through Clonegal and that they intend to commence a public consultation on a number of public transport corridors, including Rathvilly to Carlow, in the coming days.