Public Transport
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
============================================================

Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central

The significant point is that our PSO programme funds public transport services, both bus and rail, and as we know, it is composed of Exchequer funding and fares. The Deputy is right and the priority for us, working with the NTA, is to deliver on BusConnects so that it takes people out of their cars and onto the bus network. I have seen it in my own city of Cork.
In the past couple of weeks, with colleges and schools back open, there has been an increased volume of traffic on our roads. That emphasises the importance of BusConnects.
The Deputy will agree that we must continue to prioritise public transport, which is what the Government is doing, and the PSO element of that is very important. Discounts for young adults and students are critically important. For my Department, this is an important part of our budget negotiations. As Minister of State with responsibility for rural transport, I am acutely aware of the need to enhance the offering across the whole country. Deputy O'Shea, who is in the Chair, has spoken to me about different bus services in his area, Deputy Pa Daly referenced the town bus in Tralee, and other Members will be speaking this morning about other bus services. We are committed to investing but there is a need for honest conversations.

---

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/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24