Public Transport Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-15 ============================================================ Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central The Senator mentioned Sneem and Ventry. He and I will remember our great friends, the late, great John Egan and Paudie O'Shea, as well as the Senator's brother Tim. I get emotional because they were great GAA people. Cork and Kerry have the best supporters of the GAA. The Senator is right that it is important we provide additional transport. I will temper expectations, however, by making the point that there is only so much Irish Rail and Bus Éireann can do, as the Senator will know. We do not have routes that would support everyone travelling. To be fair to the NTA, it has a dedicated team which attends pre-event meetings, so we do see planning. In the case of Irish Rail, I give the example of Stephen Hackett in Cork. There is a lot of work going on there, and I am sure the same applies in Kerry. I commit to relaying the points the Senator has made on the floor of the House, and has conveyed to me in private, to the Department of Transport. To be fair to the Senator, it was not only this morning that he has articulated this. The travelling supporters of Kerry and Mayo deserve additional transport. I will impress upon Irish Rail, Bus Éireann and private tour and coach operators the need to have extra services available. I hope that whatever happens on Sunday week, we will have a great all-Ireland final. There are many who think that Kerry has won enough of them and that Mayo deserves to win at least one in our lifetime, but that is a different matter. The points are well made, and the Acting Chairperson, being an advocate of public transport, will recognise that. We congratulate Wicklow on winning the Tailteann Cup last weekend. It was a great comeback. What we can agree on is that Cumann Lúthchleas Gael brings us all together. It is a wonderful organisation and our job is to ensure we can all enjoy it. I wish the best of luck to the four teams taking part in the all-Ireland football and hurling finals in the coming weeks. --- 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/2026-07-15/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:16+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-15