Bus Services Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-22 ============================================================ Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central I thank the Senator for her ongoing advocacy on behalf of the people of Newbridge. She makes a very strong case for the town bus and is 100% correct on reducing car dependency. Like her, I am very passionate about accessibility of services and enhanced connectivity, in this case for people of Newbridge to the town. She makes a very good case in respect of the hinterland, which must also be listened to as part of this debate. The Minister for Transport has overall responsibility for the policy piece, but funding and delivery are matters for the NTA. The Senator is right and I will work with her on this. Connectivity is so important and rural transport has been a success. The town bus and commuter bus in Newbridge is, I hope, the next piece of that jigsaw. Working with the NTA and the operators, I hope we will see the delivery of the services. The NTA has that responsibility. I assure the Senator that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, the Minister of State, Deputy Canney and the whole of Government are committed to providing all of our citizens with reliable, realistic, sustainable mobility options. Public transport plays a key role in the delivery of that goal. In our budget for this year, we have seen significant funding of €940 million for the public service obligation, PSO, and Transport for Ireland Local Link services, which has been an increase on the €658 million provided in 2025. More importantly, we are engaging with the NTA on the existing levels of service, in respect of resilience and an issue with driver shortage, which must be addressed to ensure that we can plan for strategic decisions around new routes. The informed debate and decisions will be about that engagement with the NTA. While we have seen a significant increase in funding to €31 million in 2026, which is a 38% increase, there are gaps. There are 11 town bus services in Ireland. They are in Kilkenny, Drogheda, Navan, Athlone, Clonmel, Carlow, Portlaoise, Sligo, Balbriggan, Dundalk and Mullingar, and Ennis is planned to start operating next month. Would it not be great to have that in Newbridge? We will look with the NTA at a potential Newbridge town bus service as part of our town bus programme. The NTA is planning new town bus services in both Newbridge and Naas. Public consultation will commence in October and the NTA will provide an online briefing for representatives before that public consultation. I thank the Senator for her advocacy, work and support on that. Representatives of the NTA service planning team will be in Newbridge and Naas for an in-person information public service during that consultation period. There will be an elected public representatives-only slot on the day of one of the public information sessions. This will give those representatives an opportunity to meet the team on more of a one-to-one basis. The connecting rural Ireland mobility plan is about investment in new and improved public transport services for rural areas, including County Kildare. Under the programme, almost 600,000 people have access to useful daily public transport services for the first time, with 188 new and improved rural regular services provided, resulting in a huge - I think it is fivefold - increase in passenger numbers on rural services. The services provide new transport connections to 41 higher education facilities and 61 healthcare facilities, as well as offering 71 connections to rail services, allowing passengers to connect to the wider TFI network and negating the point the Senator made about the need to buy a second car. The Senator's work and advocacy allow us to make decisions on future programmes and to prioritise the delivery of existing programmes in areas like Newbridge. --- 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/2026-09-22/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-22