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

I accept that this is a pilot scheme and that there is a possibility that it will be rolled out further. A pilot, however, must be designed in such a way as to give a scheme the best chance to work. Many people in rural Ireland would only be contemplating going out at 10.30 p.m. They are working on their farms and have family commitments, as do people everywhere else. If one is in rural Ireland and one goes out to socialise before 10.30 p.m. there will not be too much going on, so cutting off the bus service at 11 p.m. may prevent the scheme from working as well as it possibly could.

The Minister has said that he will review the scheme within six months. What metrics will be used in that review to determine success or failure? We need to know now, not at the end of the six months, the key tests in terms of whether this is deemed to be a success or a failure.

The scheme is welcome on the routes that have been identified. The Minister said that he met the Vintners Federation of Ireland and the Irish Countrywomen's Association, which I welcome. He criticised others for proposing to meet the vintners on this issue but he met them. Did the Minister consider a community hackney service because these buses are not going to go down byroads or cater for the settlement patterns in rural Ireland? Many people in rural Ireland live next to secondary roads, byroads and boreens. How are they going to be able to access the buses? Perhaps rolling out a community employment scheme would work better.

What I had in mind was a scheme whereby if a local person was prepared to work on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, the person could retain social welfare benefits but at the same time would have the opportunity to earn or supplement the benefits money by providing a much-needed service in the locality. That would have had a greater impact in fighting isolation and ensuring that people would have access to a service on a weekend night regardless of how isolated or rural the location. This is something the Minister could consider now as part of the pilot scheme.

This was introduced as a result of the Minister's proposal for the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill, which is still meandering its way through the Dáil. Is there any reason or rationale that this is coming so late to the debate? Since the Minister has been 18 months debating this issue, I would have thought this pilot scheme would have been front-loaded. Then, provided the debate has concluded within the coming days or weeks, we could have been running not a pilot scheme but an actual scheme that had been tried and tested. The pilot should be completed and the full scheme should be in place.