Transport Policy Dail Éireann — 2026-03-03 ============================================================ Séamus McGrath (FF), Cork South-Central I thank the Minister of State for being here. Both the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and the Minister of State will be aware that we have very significant transportation projects in the pipeline for Cork city and county, which are very welcome. Many of these projects are urgently needed in terms of progress. We have the Cork Luas project, which is significant, the BusConnects project, the commuter rail implementation and, of course, ongoing active travel projects. All of these are very important and very welcome. We need to manage these projects under the one roof of a transportation office based in Cork, with the expertise based locally and with representation from the National Transport Authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Irish Rail and our local authorities, as well as other relevant agencies. This is critically important. The Cork metropolitan area transportation strategy needs to be fully implemented. Before it is implemented, it needs to be updated and revised. It needs to be brought up to speed in terms of the projects that are out there. This is best served by having an office based in Cork so that can progress. As the Minister of State knows, the preliminary business case for the BusConnects project has been approved by Cabinet. It will now progress to the planning phase and that is very important for the structural change that is required in terms of the development of 11 sustainable transport corridors. There is also the redesign of the existing service, which I hope should begin to take effect this year, but, as a public representative from Cork, I do not need to tell the Minister of State that I am deeply frustrated at the slow progress on BusConnects. It is incredibly slow despite the huge amount of money that has been spent. We have seen no benefits whatsoever in the service on the ground, which is frustrating for us as public representatives, but more so for the public and passengers who want to use the service. We expect the preferred route for the Cork Luas project, also known as the light rail project in Cork, to be published in the coming weeks. It will progress to consultation. As the Minister of State knows, that is an 18 km light rail project, including 25 stops along the way, with the potential to carry 2,300 passengers per hour, which is very welcome for Cork. Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, is the lead agency here but of course the National Transport Authority, NTA, is also involved. As I mentioned, we have seen good implementation of the commuter rail project, which is welcome. Active travel projects are ongoing in the local authorities. I strongly argue that these need to be mentioned in Cork under the one roof. I am not the only person making this call. I know our local authorities, the Cork Chamber of Commerce and Cork Business Association have made this call too. It makes perfect sense. We have the Cork metropolitan area transportation strategy. As I say, this needs to be updated and reviewed. That is best done in Cork by people based there locally engaging with the local communities and agencies. Cork Airport is a prime example of where there has been a failure of joined-up thinking. The Cork Luas project does not include Cork Airport, for example. The commuter rail project does not go to the southern side of the city and the bus service currently serving the airport is appallingly inadequate. It is as simple as that. The current bus services as a whole are extremely frustrating. The Minister of State, I, and other public representatives are inundated with complaints about failures of the service on a daily basis. It simply is not good enough. People are sick and tired of excuses at this stage. They want to see improvements in the service. This can be best done by a local transportation office in Cork where all the relevant stakeholders work together so that we can progress the key transportation projects for Cork and get the earliest possible delivery to help provide a modern-day service for its people. --- 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/2026-03-03/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-03