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

I welcome the Minister and his officials here this morning. Any new service is to be welcomed and while I am not going to start off on a critical note, I do have a number of questions on this new service. What additional funding has the Department given to the NTA this year to roll out the pilot scheme? The Minister said that the pilot scheme will cost €450,000. My information is that this is to come from existing resources as opposed to new or additional resources. My colleagues asked why five Local Link offices did not apply. My understanding is that the timeframe was very tight in terms of when expressions of interest were originally sought. Organisations had less than two weeks to put together a comprehensive proposal on the routes they would be able to roll out. I ask the Minister to confirm that was the case, and if so, does he believe that a two-week timeframe was adequate? To be fair to these Local Link offices, they are trying to continue on with the work they are doing, providing services in their areas. I know that only one application was made in my constituency of Longford-Westmeath because of the tight timeframe. People were unable to do the necessary preparatory work that would be needed to put a business case forward on rolling out a greater number of services. In my constituency, which is very large, the only routes that have been identified are between Ballinalee, Granard and Longford two evenings per week, with the last bus departing at 11 p.m. I appreciate that the Minister is not from rural Ireland but-----