Untold hardship will follow from Bus Éireann closures
Now that Bus Éireann has confirmed its route closures and changes, the decline of rural Ireland continues at pace. This is another hammer blow to the rural way of living.
The difficulty many people will experience in travelling to work, to study at third-level institutions, and to attend hospital appointments seems to be lost on those at decision-making level. The closure of the routes from Dublin to Clonmel, from Athlone to Westport and from Dublin to Derry, along with the reduction of services from Dublin to Limerick and Dublin to Galway, will cause undue hardship and inconvenience for a great many rural dwellers.
We’ve seen the closure in recent years of so many shops, pubs, post offices, Garda stations, bank branches, credit unions, food manufacturing co-op units, and of government departments in the smaller towns.
Soon the signage travelling west, north-west and south-west along the closed and semi-closed routes will read: ‘The Road To Nowhere’.
The Transport Minister won’t engage in trying to resolve the dispute with the unions and the company, and the Government seems paralysed and indifferent. The silence from the majority of the rural TDs across the political divide is deafening, as they conveniently hide behind the party whip system.
With billions of euro spent in recent years in bailing out the banks and paying our political masters in Europe whenever they came knocking, one is mystified as to how we can allow a certain section of Irish society to be treated so unequally.
The men and women of the 1916 Rising fought and died for Ireland, so that all of the children of the nation would be cherished equally. This line is also enshrined in our Constitution.
With the recent Government announcement of millions of euro being made available to assist rural Ireland to close the gap on the rest of the country, the closing of vital transport services badly needed to help its recovery makes no sense whatsoever. It creates untold hardship on an already hardpressed section of society. Tom Towey Cloonacool, Co Sligo
In the courts it is usual to hear the term “innocent bystander” being used on a participant.
At the same time in the Bus Éireann dispute, Transport Minister Shane Ross is giving his own convincing interpretation as if an innocent bystander – or maybe he’s more like Manuel from ‘Fawlty Towers’, who “knows nothing”. William Tate Dublin 10