Bus Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-18
============================================================

Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

It does come down to money. The Deputy is absolutely right. When I came into the Department of Transport we were very short of money, including PSO funding. Over the term of the previous Government, every year there was a supplementary budget, that is, additional moneys added at the end of every year. We could not plan new services properly. My big focus this year was securing an increase of 43%, up to €940 million. That is a much higher base which means we move into next year with a higher level of funding to provide new services.
I know the area the Deputy has spoken of very well. As is the case in my area, it is a major growth area in the Fingal region providing thousands of new homes, something the Deputy and I want to do and worked hard to do. We are seeing more of that happen. Additional bus routes are critical in those areas that are wholly dependent on bus services to get into town. As I said, not for fear of repetition, it is my intention, working with the NTA, to get the route started this year.

---

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/2026-06-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-18