Public Transport Dail Éireann — 2026-07-14 ============================================================ Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central As the Deputy is aware, I have been in west Waterford and I hope we will find a solution to that impasse. Having visited the site and spoken to locals, what is happening there does not make sense to me. I have asked that it be looked at. I will make the point in the round that the Minister, Deputy Calleary, has been proactive, as have I, in being an advocate for rural Ireland and rural communities. That voice is heard by the Minister and me and across the Government. We are close to the development of the next five-year Our Rural Future strategy. The Minister is undertaking bilateral meetings with other Departments at the moment about that document. It is important that it takes a whole-of-government approach because the Deputy is right. Rural communities have made significant advances over the lifetime of this Government and that of the last one. Now, 600,000 people are interconnected with access to 185 new or enhanced services and----- --- 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/2026-07-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-14