Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation Dail Éireann — 2026-04-23 ============================================================ Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow I thank Deputy O'Shea for raising this issue with me and with the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, here who has responsibility for rural transport as well. I am pleased to see the investment in rural transport in Cork increased by 46% between 2024 and 2025 to more than €7.2 million. To the Deputy's point about Cork, passenger numbers on the rural routes are increasing by 95% so there is clear demand for this as well. I thank the Deputy particularly for raising the proposed new bus route 515 under the Connecting Ireland rural mobility programme. I know this is something the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, is very supportive of as well. It would serve a number of villages the Deputy has outlined in Cork North-West. The NTA tells me it is planning the advancement of these routes but has not yet given me a date for implementation. On foot of the Deputy raising the matter here, the Minister of State will come back to him directly. --- 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/2026-04-23/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-23