Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party)
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114. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide a 2024 end-of-year report on the Connecting Ireland plan for County Donegal; the funding that was allocated and spent; the services that have been delivered; the funding that was allocated in 2025; the services that will be delivered in 2025 in County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53683/25]

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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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 175 new or enhanced services introduced since 2022. This means that over 240 towns and villages have been connected to the public transport network, and approximately 600,000 people have access to new and enhanced bus services.

61 new connections have been provided to healthcare facilities, 41 new connections to higher education facilities and 71 of the new and enhanced services provide connections with existing rail services. In 2024, nearly 8 million passenger journeys were made on Connecting Ireland bus routes.

There has been considerable investment in services throughout the country under Connecting Ireland, including in County Donegal, with the commencement of the enhanced Route 966 between Falcaragh and Magheroarty, and the new Route 959 from Buncranny to Greencastle, which now operates four daily return services Monday to Friday, and three daily return services on Saturdays and Sundays. This new route offers connectivity to Greencastle, Moville, Carndonagh and Buncrana providing these areas with improved and more regular bus services.

2025 is the fourth year of the five-year Connecting Ireland plan and more new and enhanced bus services are planned throughout rural Ireland. However, I must add that future funding for public transport expansion will be considered through the upcoming Annual Estimates process.

The NTA also publish implementation reviews of each phase of Connecting Ireland. The reviews of Phases 1, 2 and 3 are available on the NTA website. The NTA also publish quarterly bulletins with the bulletin for Q1 of 2025 now also available on the NTA website.

My Department supports the continued expansion of rural transport in line with the recent commitment in the Programme for Government to continue the roll-out of Connecting Ireland, which will be considered in the upcoming Budget 2026 discussions as well.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally. The NTA also has national responsibility for integrated local and rural transport, including delivering the Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Plan.

In light of the NTA responsibilities, I have referred your question to the NTA for direct reply to you. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a reply within ten working days.