Ms Anne Graham:

We took over the management of the rural transport programme in 2012. Since then, we have carried out a restructuring of the programme so there are now 17 Locallink offices providing local rural transport services funded by us. During the downturn, there was reduced funding for the rural transport programme and the other subsidised services so it is only now that subsidy levels have begun to increase. We are now in a position to provide additional services. We provided 26 additional services in 2016 and are looking at another 40 at the moment. We have ambitions to provide even more than that across the State.

What I said in my statement was that Locallink offices are our local contacts on the ground. They work with local authorities and communities to identify where the demand for services is. They bring forward proposals to us and we examine them in the broadest context and make sure that they are as integrated as possible into the service provided by Iarnród Éireann, Bus Éireann and other commercial operators so that we can get better integration of those services. The funding is then granted to them to go and procure those services.