Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Legislation is applicable to all areas, Dublin or rural, and people have to adhere to it. There is no differentiation between Dublin, urban or rural. Legislation must be implemented across the board. Perhaps if there was greater implementation of existing legislation things would be better.

People talk about rural isolation and the effect this legislation could have on people who live on their own in rural Ireland. Have the representative bodies engaged with the Minister, Deputy Ross, and the NTA on what alternative transport could be put in place, including hackney-type services and so on. I come from a small rural village where a number of the local publicans drive their customers home at the end of the night. Do the bodies see merit in national roll-out of a particular scheme to combat isolation and ensure an element of connectivity across rural Ireland in areas where there is no public transport in place?