An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business Dail Éireann — 2025-10-21 ============================================================ Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central There has been fairly significant expansion in the rural transport programme from 2022 to 2025. Some €84 million has been invested in the rural transport programme, and €116 million has been allocated to regular rural services and almost €40 million has been allocated to new services, including Connecting Ireland, new town services and BusConnects. In Carlow, Kilkenny and Wicklow, funding increased by 46% between 2023 and 2024 to more than €3.5 million. The passenger numbers on these routes in counties Carlow, Kilkenny and Wicklow increased by 61% from 2023 to 2024. I will talk to the Minister in respect of the issue the Deputy raised. Obviously, all Ministers have to operate within the budgets allocated to them. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-10-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:15+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-10-21