Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are two types of services. One is the day to day Local Links rural transport services. It is second to none in most cases. I have no qualm with those services. The daytime service in west Cork is well laid out, excellently managed and delivered to many people suffering from rural isolation. However, the proposed new service being piloted is doomed to failure before it starts. It is a city mindset not a rural mindset. The Minister said there are three areas in County Cork. I understood there were only two but I will not argue with him. He has the facts and figures in front of him and I do not.

However, €200,000 was announced initially. A transport service manager would have to be realistic. There would be no point looking for funding to cover the entirety of County Cork - the biggest county in Ireland. It could cost €400,000 to deliver that. There would be no point putting in €400,000 worth of required services when the operator is only going to get €200,000. That amount rose to €450,000 but that caught the managers off balance. They did not have many of the areas covered. It does not matter if it is €200,000 or €450,000 - we must realise Cork is a huge county.

I can only speak on behalf of County Cork. In fairness, the two or three services the Minister named should be welcomed. I am not going to discredit any new service going to a community, but I have to reflect the reality as it stands on the ground.

A connection from Kinsale through to Clonakilty, which I would expect would take in Timoleague, Ballinspittle, Kilbrittain and any areas like that, is welcome. I would be quite happy to welcome that. Connections to Banteer, Rockchapel and other places are welcome. However, what is going to happen to the people in Adrigole, Eyeries, Allihies, Castletownbere, Kilcrohane, Ahakista, Ballydehob, Schull, Goleen, Union Hall and Glandore? I could go on naming the areas in County Cork that are not going to get any services for about a week. Is the Minister saying that the people who suffer from rural isolation should stay at home? When one looks at expenditure in the Department, one sees that €1.3 million was spent on evaluation for a sustainable transport service to Eachléim. If the Minister is spending €1.3 million on something like that, why is he not spending a little bit more than €450,000 on County Cork? That amount will not facilitate the provision of a proper service.

Another problem arises in the context of the time limits of 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. The Minister says he sat down with the vintners and the IFA. I do not want to be insulting, but if he sat down with them, he must have had earmuffs on. Common sense would tell him that coming home at 11 p.m. is not suitable for any farmer. Farmers are just going out at that time. The IFA representatives definitely did not open their mouths to the Minister. I doubt they were given any chance to offer a viewpoint. The only reason the Minister is bringing the scheme forward and providing and the extra money is that we pushed for rural-proofing. Initially, he did not look into rural-proofing this Bill. However, we he was compelled to do so in the context of the programme for Government.

I do not think the Minister meets many farmers. He says he is from a rural place. Maybe there are farmers there; he should go out and talk to them. When they have milked their cows - some of them have 60, 70, or 150 animals - fed their calves and carried out their work around the farm, they are lucky to be home at 9.30 p.m. By the time they wash and get out, it is 10 p.m. When they travel to the local community, whether to visit the neighbour or go to the pub, they will be lucky to be there at 10.15 p.m. or 10.30 p.m. They will then have to be ready to go home at 10.55 p.m. It is not going to work. This reflects a city mindset. In the city, one goes out at 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. People in the city wonder if we are crazy in rural Ireland. They say we do not go out until it is time to come home. However, those are the facts. The fact is that a farmer is in the same situation whether it is a Friday or a Saturday night. The same applies to fishermen. They work late. They work long hours because sometimes their season is short and they have to take advantage while they can. There are others who go to mass at 8 p.m. and go out for a nice sociable drink afterwards. That service is not going to meet their needs. Coming home at 11 p.m. is a joke.

This is designed to fail. That is the plan here. The Government intends to be able to revisit this service and claim that no one uses it, although no one will use it because it is no good for rural Ireland. However, the Minister should go ahead if he thinks this is going to work. I will be back to tell him again that he designed it to fail. If it was meant to work, I would welcome it. I want to see a service that lasts. The Minister is not inventing the wheel, he is reinventing it.

I remember being involved in a community council in Goleen with Ms Sue Hill, who the Minister may know. She was involved in the Mizen Tourism Co-operative Society. We came up with a rural bus scheme to work at nigh, and we were able to run it effectively. However, we were trying to run it on voluntary funds. The then Minister for Rural, Community and Gaeltacht Affairs introduced the "booze bus", which was unfortunately called the wrong thing. Again, it ran out of funds. The bottom line is, the service needs to be better supported. Forget about sixpence reviews, we can do the review here and now. If the Minister wants it to run properly, we will tell him how to run it.

I am worried that many transport service companies were put off applying for routes that would cover as many areas as possible when they saw the initial figure of €200,000. It rose to €450,000, by which time many had submitted their applications. Perhaps they applied again. I hope they did. To be honest, I find it difficult to believe that this will tackle rural isolation because people will find its operating times difficult. Moreover, I refer to the areas in County Cork that it covers. I estimate that 35 or 40 services would be needed to cover some of the areas I have mentioned. The Beara, Mizen Head and Sheep's Head peninsulas are huge and nobody has covered them. That is where rural isolation takes effect. One can look at the age profiles in the census. As one goes farther into the peninsulas, the age profile increases. That is rural isolation. Somebody did not do their homework when writing this one. They are not servicing the areas where real rural isolation is suffered. Some areas may be covered by taxi services. These areas in rural Ireland are not. I rest my case.