Ms Louise Lennon:

I will reiterate what Mr. Boland was saying about the role that rural transport plays in combatting isolation for a lot of people. It is a lifeline for many people that do use it. Many people think that rural transport is for bringing older people into their local town or village to collect their pension on a Friday, but many other people use it as well. Younger people use it and in some cases, as one person said, they would not be able to get back into training and employment were if not for the bus. That goes a long way for keeping younger people in rural areas as well.

The funding for the rural transport programme has increased in the last two years and it is €14 million for 2017, but it is still below what it was intended to be for 2016, at €18 million. It is carrying approximately 1.5 million passengers a year, so the service is vital for people. Also, some of the local links have contracts with the Health Service Executive, rehabilitation services and other services. They are linking into them, and people are dependent on the service to bring them to their hospital appointments. The importance and value that is placed on it cannot be measured monetarily, because people rely on it so much. It needs to play a greater role in the overall transport system.