Public Transport Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-21 ============================================================ Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central I thank the Acting Chair. I apologise to the House for being late. I was in the Dáil and could not get over here fast enough. l thank Senator Ryan for raising this important matter. I would like to clarify for Senator Ryan that the Minister for Transport, on whose behalf I am taking this matter, has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport but neither the Minister nor his officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. That is an important point to make. The statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally rests with the National Transport Authority, NTA, as the Senator knows quite well. I reassure the Senator 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. In our own county of Cork we have seen significant investment in the Cork area commuter rail programme. To support this objective, in budget 2026, the Department of Transport secured €940 million of funding for PSO and TFI Local Link services, providing a significant 43% uplift, an increase from €658.4 million in 2025. The allocation further supports subsidised bus and rail services across Ireland, including in Cork, as well as maintaining targeted fares initiatives such as the recently introduced free travel for all children up to the age of nine and the young adult card, as part of the NTA's national fares strategy. Senator Ryan raised extending the Cork city Leap boundary to Millstreet station. The NTA has advised that it has no current plans to extend the boundary. However, I would like to remind Senators that there are currently two Leap card options available which offer 50% discounted travel for young people and students. The young adult card is available to all young adults aged 19 to 25 and the student Leap card is available to full-time students aged 16 to 18 and those aged 26 and over. Qualification is based on students being in full-time education or training for at least 16 hours per week. Any student who meets the eligibility criteria, supported by a valid student ID, can have a student Leap card. The NTA encourages all customers to use the TFI Leap card to ensure they receive the best possible value on fares. Leap card users can save up to 30% compared to paying with cash, making it a more cost-effective option for regular travel. In relation to train services, there are two trains, as Senator Ryan knows, which commence from Tralee on a Tuesday-to-Friday basis and which serve Banteer and Millstreet. The first operates at 5.45 a.m. and goes from Tralee to Cork, and the second train is the direct 7.05 a.m. Tralee-Heuston service from Monday to Saturday. On Mondays, there is a specific and consistently strong demand for an early connection to Dublin. To meet this requirement, the first train is deployed to operate the 4.30 a.m. Tralee-Mallow service, which connects into the 5.40 a.m. Cork-Heuston train, facilitating an arrival into Dublin at 8.17 a.m. This ensures early morning Dublin-bound customers have a workable connection at the start of the working week. larnród Éireann recognise this results in the absence of the 5.45 a.m. Tralee-Cork service for customers travelling on Monday, including those from Banteer and Millstreet, who benefit from the service from Tuesday to Friday. At present, the fleet is fully deployed across the network and there is no train set available to operate this service on Mondays without displacing the early Dublin connection. There are, however, alternative bus services available on a Monday morning, operating on the Expressway service and commencing at 6.15 a.m. I understand the NTA is in discussions with larnród Éireann on the scope or otherwise to introduce an early Monday morning Banteer to Cork rail service. The new DART+ fleet begins entering service from 2027, at which time we can review deployment of intercity and commuter trains which become available as a result. Their deployment will be subject to the approval of the NTA. I assure the Senator I have been in discussion with the NTA and will meet its representatives again. I am from Cork and am very familiar with Banteer and Millstreet. Senator Lynch has also raised it with me and I know of the issue from talking to family members living in the area. I look forward to working with Senator Ryan and others to ensure the best outcome for commuters. --- 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/seanad/2026-01-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-21