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

I thank the Deputy for her ongoing support for public transport in Louth and other places in rural Ireland. This question deserves attention in terms of the progress we have made in rural transport. As the Deputy knows, it is one of the key points of our programme for Government. The Minister, the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and I are very much committed to balanced regional investment being designated as a core principle in the national development plan, NDP, sectoral investment plan for transport. Predicated on that is investment in rural transport, Local Link and that piece to which we will return in a minute.
The Government is firmly committed to rolling out additional improved service levels along with expanded and improved infrastructure at national and regional levels. Probably the most visible of these programmes is the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan. This is a multiphase programme of investment in a new and improved public transport service for rural areas. Under the programme, upwards of 600,000 people now have access to useful daily public transport services for the first time and 188 new and improved regular public transport services have been provided, resulting in a more than fivefold increase in passenger numbers. Multimodal transport is something that has existed in urban areas for a long time and I am delighted that, under our remit, we are now seeing rural communities connected as well.
It is a key commitment in the programme for Government and also for County Louth, and I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. I met John McGahon, chief executive of Dundalk Chamber of Commerce yesterday and he raised the matter with me. The Deputy has been very strong in her advocacy to me for a long time. The sectoral plan will also see us looking at investment in greenways but also giving an uplift in terms of rail.
In my supplementary answer, I will discuss other matters regarding County Louth.

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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