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

Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central

I thoroughly support Deputy Gould. I share the same ambition he has and it frustrates all of us that we have issues with the bus service, not just in Cork but across the country. To be fair to the NTA - and I am critical of the NTA, as he knows - we have seen investment by Government through the NTA in the BusConnects Cork network and we will have delivery on the ground. It needs to be expedited but, in fairness, as the Deputy is a long-time member of both Cork City Council and the Oireachtas, he knows to get to the end result of BusConnects, there has to be planning, preparation and delivery in the context of BusConnects. There have been different approvals by Government in line with our infrastructure guidelines. I look forward to that happening and to the Deputy and me travelling on buses and being able to be positive about BusConnects Cork.
I wish to make a genuine comment to Deputy Gould. I will happily articulate on his behalf and that of the residents he mentioned, who deserve a bus service that is reliable and accessible. I will take up the points regarding the residents of Glanmire because the Deputy is right. It is a fast-growing area. We need to ensure there is no gridlock in Cork. The N40 is jammed every morning. We have seen since the opening of the Munster Technological University, MTU, and University College Cork, UCC, after the summer and the growth of Cork University Hospital that traffic in the western suburbs has grown expeditiously. I will talk to the Deputy afterwards and I will communicate on his behalf, and that of the residents of Glanmire, with the NTA.
As the Deputy knows, this is not an operational matter for me as a Minister of State and for the Department. It is the NTA working with Cork City Council. I will happily come back to Deputy Gould afterwards on that.

---

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