Ms Marion Wilkinson:

When the discussions on the comprehensive employment strategy were being conducted, the NDA took on a number of consultations. While employment, and further and higher education might have been the outcome that we were consulting on, in every consultation that we had, transport came up as an issue. We had some discussions with the NTA.

There have been some innovative pilot projects around the country. We are aware of the Twitter account called Access For All and its tweets. With some innovations that have taken place, we need to share the message about and recommend the inclusion of a taxi service that will bring people to work where public transport is not available. We must scale up those projects. We must ensure pilot schemes turn into more than that and are examined as part of the vision for future, and further, development. Across rural Ireland there are gaps in accessibility to transport and innovations are happening in that space.