Ms Anne Graham:

I thank the Chairman for the invitation to attend. I understand that the committee wishes me address the topic of rural taxis. To assist me in dealing with members' subsequent questions I am joined by Mr. Hugh Creegan, deputy CEO, and Ms Margaret Malone, rural transport manager with the authority.

Before dealing with the specific areas of focus, I would like to give the committee an overview of developments in the Local Link rural transport programme. The objective of the rural transport programme is to provide a good quality nationwide community based public transport system in rural Ireland which responds to local needs.

Key features of the rural transport programme include: completing 2 million passenger journeys in 2018, with 1 million of those journeys provided for free travel passengers; over 400 private operators providing the services using the services of almost 900 drivers; the programme funding the provision of once-off trips for individuals and community-voluntary groups to help address the lack of transport as a factor in social exclusion; and Local Link services being a mixture of regular rural bus services and demand responsive, door-to-door services operating in very remote rural areas. These services are broken down as follows: 63 rural regular services and 1,350 demand responsive services operating nationally; 80% of all rural transport services are accessible broken down as follows: regular services - 85% of fleet in use is accessible. This is a combination of low floor entry vehicles and vehicles with wheelchair lifts; the demand responsive services - 65% of the fleet in use is accessible, comprised mainly of vehicles with wheelchair lifts; and the NTA has improved the information on the Local Link website, www.locallink.ie, which has seen traffic to the website more than tripling in 2018.

Over the past three years, the authority has supported the expansion of rural transport services to include regular commuter bus services. Operating at least five times per day over a five, six and seven days per week schedule, these services are specifically designed to ensure connectivity with other public transport services. This connectivity facilitates passengers to make onward journeys typically to access education, employment, health, recreational and other opportunities.

With regard to recent initiatives in rural transport, the authority recently produced its Strategic Plan for Rural Transport 2018-2022, which sets out nine key objectives for delivery upon over the life time of the plan. The key priorities of the programme continue to include addressing rural social exclusion and the integration of rural transport services with other public transport services.

The authority is currently implementing one of the listed actions in the strategy under Objective Area 8 - Encouraging Innovation in Rural Transport Service Provision, that is, the provision of evening and night services to address unmet transport needs in rural areas.

Following a funding call in February 2018, a total of 65 new evening-night time services were subsequently approved for funding and the majority commenced operating in July 2018. Key characteristics of these new services include: 23 of these services are extensions to existing regular public transport services; 42 of these services are demand responsive services; services will be provided nationally across 26 counties; and the services will run on average from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., typically on Friday and Saturday evenings.

The initial six-month pilot was extended by a further three months as it was felt that they needed sufficient time to be established and for the community to trust that the service was reliable. While take-up levels were slow initially across all the new services, patronage began to increase in the lead-up to Christmas and in many cases has been retained in the past few months. A small number of non-performing services were withdrawn at the end of December 2018. The initial review of the services at the end of December is published on the Local Link website. It was felt that most of the services end too early in the evening and an extension of time should be considered should these services continue.

On the co-ordination of services, in exercising its functions the authority seeks to achieve the provision of an integrated public transport system of services and networks for all users. Wherever appropriate, we seek to integrate and co-ordinate services to provide for seamless travel options where change of bus and-or mode is required. This includes the operation of rural transport services, Local Link, which can facilitate connecting to mainline inter-urban services, irrespective of the provider of those services. In fact, the NTA is the only body that can bring modes and operators together in an integrated service pattern that provides the best service for rural communities.

However, the NTA recognises that public bus transport cannot meet the demands for travel for many people in rural Ireland, either because it is not available at all or it is not available at the time needed. Taxis and hackneys play an important role in meeting the travel demand when public transport is not available. However, it is recognised that there are gaps in the provision of taxis and hackneys in many rural communities.

The taxi regulation review report, published by the Government in January 2012, recommended the introduction of a local area hackney licence to address transport deficits that would not otherwise be addressed in certain rural areas. Regulations permitting the issue of such licences were introduced with effect from December 2013 to enable a part-time hackney service to be provided in generally rural areas which are likely to be too small to support a full-time taxi or hackney operation, and which are too far from adjacent centres to be serviced by taxis or hackneys from those adjacent centres.

However, there is a very low take up of local area hackneys due primarily to the cost of insurance. To carry passengers, the standard insurance has to be changed to allow carriage of passengers for hire or reward. This can increase the cost of the insurance up to €8,000 per year, making it uneconomic to provide such a service. Accordingly, it is clear that the current local area hackney model needs to change in order to address this significant cost barrier to the provision of needed services.

In response to this the NTA proposes the following: simplify the administration involved in the local area hackney application process; pilot a small number of hackney services that will receive grant aid in areas that have no hackney or taxi service operating currently; and pilot a small number of community transport services that will receive grant aid in areas that have no hackney or taxi service currently operating.

No new legislation is required. The current Taxi Regulation Act 2013 would not require to be amended. The pilots will enable the NTA to test this operational model before making it available county-wide and it would also allow us to better estimate the cost of delivering this type of grant aid. It also has to be carefully managed so that it does not undermine existing licensed taxi and hackney operators in rural areas.

The work the NTA is doing in expanding rural public transport services and this new proposal to expand local area hackney and community transport services will go a long way in meeting the travel demand in isolated rural communities.