In accordance with the Connecting Ireland programme, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has announced 67 new or improved bus routes.
These will be implemented before the end of the year and will cost €8.5 million.
Speaking in Tullamore at the launch of the routes, Mr Ryan said it was “a really important day for public transport in Ireland”.
“It’s the Connecting Ireland service, it started last year and now we are really ramping it up.”
He said numbers have grown on the 38 bus routes introduced last year.
“Every time we put in a good frequent public transport service numbers take off,” the minister said.
Mr. Ryan stated that the Connecting Ireland initiative is “a revolution in public transport in our country and we’re only warming up,” adding that the main hurdle to the program’s implementation is finding new bus drivers.
“We need particularly younger people to go into this profession. It’s a good job, you get thanked every day, along the way,” the minister said.
Although all of the buses, including those for wheelchair users, would be accessible, he added some of them will be electric.
The National Transport Authority’s CEO, Anne Graham, stated that the goal is for all public transportation to be electric, but that electric buses are being introduced initially in urban areas and that “we just need to test can the battery serve the distances that are travelled on local link services.”