Departmental Budgets
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central

I am not going to have that particular row with the Deputy on the floor of House, but I want to make it quite to clear to him that the budgetary negotiations are ongoing. They have not concluded. The budget is on 6 October. We are very much committed to enhancing services, and an unprecedented €940 million allocation for PSO services in the budget of 2026, which was a 43% uplift, is by anyone's standard "ambition". That is called wanting to see an expansion of the services.
It is a challenging period in public transport. We are seeing an increase in passenger numbers. All of us who live in urban areas see the increase in people using it. I will give the Deputy the example of the commuter rail project in my city of Cork. It is a savage success story. More people are using it. The Deputy's colleague, Deputy Quaide in Midleton, will tell him that it is an example. Deputy Kenny in Mallow will tell him that Mallow is full. Midleton is full, as is Cobh. Deputy O'Shea is in that area as well. It is a huge success, and that shows the breadth of our ambition, but I will come back to the Deputy further in the supplementary reply.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24