Ms Anne Graham:

I cannot comment on that.

I do not agree that no effort is made to make the routes more viable. On the PSO side, we are working to make services more efficient and effective. Over the past five years, we have been working in partnership with Bus Éireann to make more out of the subsidy we get and more out of the resources they have to hand. That has been very successful in the regional cities where the revenue and passenger numbers have grown as a result of the changes we have made. I agree we must do more in rural areas at making the services more efficient and to improve the integration of services to local hospitals. The work has to happen on the ground locally to meet those demands for services. The transport co-ordination units, formerly the rural transport groups, did try to make contacts with the HSE and local HSE services. They have been successful in some places, not so successful in others. We will continue to push that the services provided in rural areas also meet the demands for HSE services.

The Deputy is correct there has not been a good level of integration. It will take a while to get it but we are working towards it.