Ms Miriam McKenna:

I am the Local Link TCU project manager in Louth, Meath and Fingal. The area is a combination of urban near Dublin and very rural. I want to speak about the new 188 service we put in place a couple of months ago. It goes from Athboy, County Meath, through Navan and various areas and ends in Drogheda. The service began on a Monday and the following week we started counting our passengers. On the second week of service, we had 1,400 passengers. We then looked at where they were boarding and alighting. The service covered employment, education and also tourism because it goes to Newgrange. It also covers health because it goes from one hospital to the other. When they get into Drogheda they do not just go to the bus station. The bus continues on and goes to the hospital and picks up at the hospital in Navan. Now people in Navan and County Meath generally can come to Navan which is the central depot, for most of our services. They can get on the bus and get to the hospital in Drogheda which is the first time that I have seen anything that interacts so well. I would love to have loads more of this type of service, I am begging for them. We also run a regular Facebook competition with Leap cards as the prizes. We now know that the type of passenger is not specifically just older people or younger people. Everybody is using the service because when it is put out there with good publicity, it works. When all the factors that I have listed are added in, it works very well and that is what we want more of.