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CORK TD THOMAS Gould has called on the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) to facilitate extra flights between Cork and Dublin to facilitate people travelling to the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final.
Cork will take on Clare in Croke Park on Sunday, with thousands of people from both counties expected to make the journey to Dublin.
Iarnród Éireann has confirmed that it will be providing an extra six services to and from Cork on the day. However, Bus Éireann has said that it will not be doing the same at present.
In a statement a spokesperson for Bus Éireann said, “At this stage there are no additional services being added to the Route 245X, but Bus Éireann will monitor the situation closely and will communicate any service updates to customers through our website and social media channels.”
“There are tens of thousands of people travelling from Cork, and I’ve had a lot of people calling me about transport,” Gould said on Newstalk.
“I’ve been in touch with Iarnród Éireann, and with Bus Éireann. It’s even gotten bad enough that I’ve contacted DAA to see if they’ll enquire with Ryanair or Aer Lingus about putting on extra flights for fans.”
However, Barry Kenny, Corporate Communications Manager for Iarnród Éireann, said that the issue is not as simple as putting on extra trains.
“To operate a route safely, our drivers need to know the route, they need to know the signals and the layout. So we can’t just pluck drivers from one part of the country and put them somewhere else on short-notice,” he said.
“We only find out about the actual routes required for these matches in about a week or two in advance.”
In a statement, DAA said that any consideration to operate a charter flight between Cork and Dublin this weekend would be a commercial decision for the airlines involved.
“Cork Airport is always ready to facilitate ad hoc charter flights, but it may prove unrealistic for the airlines given they are well into the peak of the very busy summer season with a full deployment of their aircraft on scheduled services,” a spokesperson said.
“Cork Airport wishes the team and the thousands of fans travelling by all modes of transport the very best in their efforts to bring the Liam McCarthy home to Leeside this weekend.”
Throw in for the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final is at 3.30pm this Sunday.
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What extra Cork to Dublin flights ????.as we’ve no scheduled flights to there as it is !!!
@John O’Driscoll: He hasn’t a clue really. Populist request…… Extra trains and buses are all that’s needed. At least they will leave you close to Croke Park
WOW, he really has his hand on the pulse of what is happening in Cork
It’s 2 hours up the motorway…
@Richard K: hmmm… it’s 2 hours from Naas my guy. Welcome to the city.
@Richard K: 2 hours driving from some parts of West Cork and you are still In the county of Cork.
Has Tommy lost the plot?? He was complaining a few weeks ago about the price of match tickets. There haven’t been Cork to Dublin flights for years!!
I think Thomas will get a telling off from mary lou over this one…a bit like the helicopter to the Galway races
Jaysus, All Irelands for over a hundred years, the same distance, similar ground capacities and now you want to fly to Dublin. Travel like you always did or stay at home and moan that you wasted your ticket because you couldn’t get a flight. Proper fan indeed. Up Cork, Up Clare.
Actually, drive up to Shannon, lol.
There was another Cork TD or Senator on last week, wanting the motorway tolls to be eliminated next Sunday…Jesu* wept !!
@John Manahan: Actually a good suggestion to help traffic flow. Especially with both counties traffic on the same road for part of the way. Would only have to leave them open for a couple of hours in the evening. Operators aren’t dependent on those kind of bonanzas.
Just after the local elections, sinn fein said that they need to listen to the people more…
Should a party not exist because of certain principles and ideas that makes up its ethos, and people vote on which party best represents their thoughts, rather than each party bending and twisting trying to muster votes from each side.
Fianna fail and fine gael are no better..
We end up with parties that don’t really stand for anything, left or right leaning
What an extremely sad man he is.
Welcome to another climate change denier. God be with the good auld days when they’d set off walking on Wednesday to be there for the match. Notions, that’s what it is, flights how are ye!
Flights from cork to dublin? La de da. Nothing wrong with the aircoach.
The Coveney posse shud be able to fit a few of the loyal in down the back
If O’Leary was any good he would sort out a few flights for it.
@Padraig: If the GAA were any good they’d give the 2 participating counties a bigger share of the tickets.
@Padraig: It ain’t his job Pádraig!
Sorry!!
Far more important things for a TD to be doing me thinks
It’s great to see people who haven’t been to games all year can fly back after securing a ticket
Lots of places to go in ireland if you want to see people fighting with sticks.
He’s right about going to Croke Park. Men actually walked to the match along the railway tracks. One man would cycle 30- 40 miles in limerick to play in in a match. The country was impoverished for many years after the founding of the state. People emigrated never to return. It’s seeing the past through rose tinted glasses. My family would get parcels from America. Swiss family Robinson was an amazing book I read in the 1950s. Another version of the wild geese after WWll it was. We had no political leaders until people like lemass took up the reins. Everything changed then. Sport was an incredibly unifying force. I met a Canadian sports commentator in Portugal once. He said “don’t tell me, don’t tell me “. I was just after flying from Dublin where I saw the hurling final.
Maybe rail line from the airport aswell.
No climate worries for that weekend put on 10 extra flights another waster
have your say