As the Minister is aware, Bus Éireann has announced it is withdrawing from the Cork-Dublin route. This will lead to a significant impact on the people living in Fermoy and Mitchelstown in east Cork, with the loss of 42 services per week. The area will be left with one service to Cork and back on Sunday and that is it. What does the Minister tell the people of east Cork, including Mitchelstown, Fermoy and the hinterland? When is there the possibility of a service and how quickly will it be resolved and restored? It is a vital service in east Cork and it is gone.

Bus Éireann came to us with its proposed reallocation and redeployment. The company has to manage its resources and we agreed to it. They were various caveats or conditions related to that. One is that they are looking to redeploy bus services in Cork to improve the services into and in the city.

I was aware a number of years ago that the same issue was arising in Fermoy, Mitchelstown, Cahir and all the towns along that line. It was difficult for Bus Éireann Expressway to compete on the Dublin service because it was stopping on all the routes along the way and the other bus companies were going direct. Bus Éireann was losing customers on that Expressway route. I said if there was a withdrawal of any services it would be with the caveat that the National Transport Authority, NTA, would look at each of those towns and, where there was a lot of connectivity or services, we would see whether we could provide such connectivity or services on a public service obligation route instead of an Expressway commercial route and do that in tandem with anything we do with revised routes. Those towns are specific examples where we have had that difficulty so I will be in touch with the NTA in that regard to make sure there is connectivity.