Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That is exactly what I mean. The Deputy also raised the diminution of services in rural Ireland. I am exercised about this. I know the services to which he referred. We are coming up with a protocol on the provision of services, be it Government or private services. We propose to introduce provision for a protocol whereby the service provider has a conversation with the community on the proposed changes and in order that the community gets a chance to come up with an alternative. I know that Deputy Stanley means that a person should not wake up and find that the service is no longer there and that the rug has been pulled out from under them before they have had a chance to catch their breath. We would be doing a good service for rural areas if such a protocol were put in place. I am working on it with people from Irish Rural Link and other organisations in rural Ireland that can advise me. I think we can work together to create a protocol to which service providers adhere.

I wish to speak about a bank that proposed to close its branch in a community, and which event was reported in the newspaper. The local representatives and I worked with the community, and even though the bank was lost, the community managed to consolidate the post office and the credit union service. The community will benefit from people working together to see what can be done. I have spoken to that community and they are sending me proposals on how they feel that protocol should be worked up for rural Ireland.

On the proposed cuts to service by Bus Éireann, I attended a large meeting in Castlecomer last night - I am not sure if Deputy Stanley was present - at which I listened very carefully to the concerns about the potential difficulties the community faces because of the withdrawal of the routes. The bus plays a key role in this area, bringing students to their third level colleges, people to their hospital appointments and so on and is key to connectivity. During the period of the Celtic tiger people from the capital moved to rural areas but they would like to be able to visit their family in the capital. That was one of the major points to emerge during the meeting. I took on board the concerns of the community, which we must deal with.

At that meeting Bus Éireann agreed to leave the service in place for a period up to June while the community, the National Transport Authority and other stakeholders come together in a working group to examine in detail the issues and challenges around the withdrawal of a very important public transport service. It is very important that we come up with an alternative but we need time. This comes back to my fundamental point, which Deputy Stanley was trying to make as well, on the need for a protocol to kick into place when something of this significance happens in rural Ireland, leaving the people feeling that they do not know what to do.

In their very real everyday lives, people use public transport to go to work and students use it to travel to college because their parents cannot afford to drive them to Dublin and the students cannot afford a car. One could see the anger at the meeting. People were angry about the way they heard of the withdrawal of the service. It is very important that, together with the working group, we work on a protocol to address the issues in rural parts of counties Kilkenny and Carlow and that we can apply it to any rural area. It will require tweaking for specific communities but it is a worthwhile exercise.

At last night's meeting the people of the community came together to help themselves. We would like to be able to give them the tools to help themselves in order that they can participate in the alternative service. Now the community has breathing space.