Ms Anne Graham:

We do not disagree with the Deputy. I have been outlining how we go about doing that. We have all said that there are gaps in services. We are trying to address those gaps and provide as much service as we can with the funding that we have. We have had quite a bit of success in filling those gaps in recent years. I am not saying that it is a perfect service by any means. We have a long way to go to address the type of issues Deputy Ó Cuív has previously raised with us, including evening and weekend services. That is a work in progress.

I will move on to Senator Coffey's questions. The NTA does engage in demographic projection and the rural-proofing of our proposals to the regional assemblies. We are careful to ensure that what we put forward has due regard for demographics but also meets the needs of rural towns and villages and improves public transport in those areas. Outside of the greater Dublin area, GDA, our role in support of assemblies arises from our statutory duty to assist and co-operate in the preparation of the regional spatial and economic strategies, RSESs. We are required to prepare a report setting out the issues which, in our opinion, should be considered by the regional assemblies in making a regional spatial and economic strategy. The eastern regional assembly is slightly different because we have special functions concerning the GDA, but for the others we set out what we believe are the transport issues that the regional assembly should address.

In regard to the co-ordination of existing services, we recognise that there is potential to link rural towns and services more. We engage with transport operators continually. If they identify gaps, we work with the operators to see if they can fill them. If the operator is a licensed service, we see if they are willing to meet the needs without a subsidy. Alternatively, we sometimes have to subsidise a service in order to make those links. Our Local Link services have really been fantastic at making those links, particularly in rural areas, and we want to develop that a lot further. If there are specific instances of a lack of transport links, I ask members to bring them to our attention because we rely on people highlighting these needs. We will then see if there is anything we can do in that area.

We recognise that we do not have enough cycling infrastructure. Our function in this regard is focused on the cities, because that is our arrangement with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

The national development plan now requires that no 100% diesel-fuelled fleet is purchased for public transport after July 2019, so we have to move. We were already considering moving to a low-emission fleet. Starting this year, we hope to begin the procurement of a low-emission diesel fleet for our bus services.