Ms Louise Lennon:

I thank Deputy Ó Cuív for his comments. I will come in on some of the transport points. As Ms Carmody said, the SDGs should be used as that overarching framework for policy design.

On the work being done on Connecting Ireland, we welcome the roll-out of the Local Link services and the increase but our CEO was in this committee a few weeks ago with two Local Link providers. Many of the issues they have raised are around bridging the gap between where a service ends and another one begins and connecting, literally, the services together.

We are doing a piece of work with Social Justice Ireland around just transition and well-being in rural communities. Transport has come up and continues to be the main barrier to accessing many other services. A factor that could increase access would be having that last-mile piece of transport, which could be delivered at a more local level through community car schemes or Uber-style, to get that person from their home to the bus stop or train station, whichever is closest to them, or to the Local Link bus stop if it is not a door-to-door service.

On many days the park and ride facilities in train stations are not big enough to cater for people who want to use the train. That is another issue that disincentives people from using the public transport service available to them.

Local Link facilities are needed. If Connecting Ireland is going to connect, it has to connect people and ensure the people left furthest behind, older people or people with disabilities who cannot make the journey to the bus stop by walking or by bicycle, have a choice and an option to use the transport available to them.