2026-06-24

I need to raise with the Minister of State the need to improve bus services on the western side of County Cork, from Cork city, up the Lee valley towards Ballyvourney, the upper Blackwater valley over as far as Millstreet and along the Bandon Valley too. Students need to be able to get to college on time. People need to be able to get to work on time and to use public transport to do that, and to be able to get back home again in a timely way as well. These are growing communities west of Cork city. Large numbers of houses are being built, or are already built, with construction happening in places like Millstreet, Ballyvourney, Macroom, Coachford, Cloghduff, and Ovens. They need that infrastructure to be able to get to and from work and into Cork city. I acknowledge that progress has been made on public transport locally with the installation and building of bus shelters, and the new improvement of the No. 40 route, with the stop on the western side of Macroom, as well as the recently approved planning permission for Macroom bus station. Macroom bus station, after the bypass has been built, offers a real opportunity to act as a hub, so there will be buses coming in from the likes of Killarney, Bantry, Millstreet, Bandon and Cork, and an opportunity for people to switch services there. One service which I want to draw particular attention to is the 256. This is coming from Bantry. Currently, two local transport initiatives operate back to back, Bantry to Ballingeary and Inchigeelagh to Macroom. The NTA has been examining this option, which is advanced, fully planned and ready to go. It is joining the dots, putting together the two services to have one continuous service operating from Bantry through to Macroom. However, they are held up waiting for PSO funding. The new service is not a far-off concept. It is ready to go. The NTA needs to get the PSO funding up and running. The 257 is planned to run from Millstreet to Macroom to Bandon. Half of that is done, so the next stage, from Macroom to Bandon, needs to advance. There are also plans fairly well advanced with BusConnects to serve Ovens. Things need to advance for Crossbarry and Donoughmore. Many of the projects are already under way or fairly advanced in planning, but they are stuck waiting for PSO funding. The NTA is very clear on that. Really what we need to do is bring them along to that next stage. If the Minister looks, for example, at that 257 that I gave as an example, the council is already planning bus stops and bus shelters along part of that, including, for example, in Crookstown. The actual bus part needs to be advanced. The NTA is adamant that it has done its planning and is now waiting for PSO funding. Cork North-West needs delivery, certainty and fairness, not further delays.

I thank Deputy Moynihan for giving me the opportunity to address the issue of bus services for people living west of Cork city. I want to clarify from the outset that the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport but that neither the Minister nor his officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. Statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally rests with the NTA. The NTA works with the public transport operators who deliver the services and have responsibility for day-to-day operational matters. That said, I reassure the Deputy that the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options, and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal. To support this objective, in budget 2026 the Department of Transport secured €940 million in funding for PSO and TFI Local Link services, an increase from €650 million in 2025. This will go towards funding and subsidising existing public transport services across Ireland by maintaining targeted fares, including initiatives such as the recently introduced free travel for all children up to the age of nine and the young adult card for those aged from 19 to 25 as part of the NTA’s national fares strategy. The Department continues to engage with the NTA to ensure existing levels of service, resilience and driver shortages are considered, and to ensure that planning and strategic decisions are informed by both operational and resource considerations. A sum of €31 million has been secured for continued investment in our rural transport service in 2026, a 38% increase on last year’s funding. This funding ensures the continued delivery of vital transport services across rural Ireland, building on the significant increase in recent years. In County Cork in particular, funding increased by 47% between 2024 and 2025, boosting passenger numbers by 95%. A great example of this continued investment can be seen on route 519, introduced in July 2025. This new route provides passengers travelling from Charleville to Cork with a morning service at 7.05 a.m. and a service from Cork to Charleville at 5.45 p.m., Monday to Friday. This new route is part of the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan, a major public transport initiative. Since 2022, 185 new and enhanced services have commenced. Over 240 towns and villages are now linked into the public transport network. Thirty-six of these new and enhanced services were delivered in 2025. These services, introduced under Connecting Ireland, now provide new transport connections to 41 higher education facilities and 61 healthcare facilities, as well as offering 71 connections to rail services, allowing passengers to continue to connect to the wider TFI network. Approximately 600,000 people now have access to these new services. Increased services have led to exponential growth in passenger numbers, with more than 8 million passenger journeys recorded across services in 2025. This represents an increase of 70% when compared with patronage in 2023. The expansion of rural bus services has brought life back into villages and towns. Under the Connecting Ireland initiative, the NTA plans to extend the 320 service to Charleville rail station and extend the frequency of services connecting Charleville town centre to the station, as well as Limerick city, Patrickswell and Croom, subject to the availability of funding and operational readiness. I assure the Deputy that transport connectivity is very important for people who live and work in rural Ireland, including in west Cork.

I thank the Minister of State for outlining the various works under way. I readily acknowledge that there is headway being made in different places. In this regard I have referred to bus shelters, including for the No. 40 route. Time and again, I have raised here the need to advance the 233 bus service. It is a vital service that goes up and down the Lee valley, serving the area from Macroom to Cork. However, it does not serve those settlements alone as it also services a huge number of people in growing communities in between, from Kilmurry to Crookstown. Cloghduff is growing dramatically, as are Aherla, Killumney and Ovens. On the other side of the Lee, over in Carrig, there are Dripsey and Coachford. Large numbers of houses have been built in this area and people are moving in. They want to be able to get to and from college on time. They want a bus that will give them an opportunity to get to work. The background work by the NTA is under way on these routes. Its plan is to have three strands of the 233 service, for example in the north, centre and south, to serve the various communities. Again, the NTA is coming up against the roadblock I have described. It was very clear when we raised the matter with them that, as much planning as it has done, it is held up waiting for PSO funding to be able to advance the routes. The 233 is an essential service to serve communities right down the Lee valley. Can the Minister give an indication of when the NTA can expect to get the PSO funding to have the routes in place? Cork North-West needs delivery, certainty and fairness, not further delays.

I thank the Deputy. I reassure him again that the Department, its Minister, Deputy O’Brien, my fellow Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, and I are fully committed to delivering a more sustainable, inclusive and accessible transport system for the benefit of current and future generations. In the Programme for Government: Securing Ireland’s Future, the Government committed to the continued roll-out of the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan. Investment can be seen in the enhanced route 521 between Newcastle West and Charleville. This enhanced service now includes the addition of an early-morning service and higher frequency services from Thursday to Sunday. It operates seven daily return services from Monday to Wednesday, nine daily return services from Thursday to Saturday and four daily return services on Sunday. The route also provides late-evening and peak-time services for commuters and improved connectivity to Limerick city. The NTA has stated a number of new routes and route enhancements under the plan have yet to be implemented. The Deputy mentioned route 256 between Bantry and Macroom. This is at an advanced stage of planning and commencement is subject to funding. Discussions are ongoing between the Department of Transport and the NTA. Currently, they do not have a definite timeframe, but I can assure the Deputy that route 256, and the 257 and 233 he mentioned, will be raised with the Department and the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, and the other Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer. We will see where we can get with them. I appreciate the Deputy’s passionate plea. Coming from a rural constituency myself, I see the growth in demand for public transport. It is up to the Government to deliver on that. I thank the Deputy.