Bus Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-24
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Seán Canney (IND), Galway East

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.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-24