Paddy McHugh (Galway East, Independent)

I thank the Minister for his reply. However, it does not give hope to the thousands of rural people who do not have a transport service. Will the Minister admit that the service as currently constituted is unsatisfactory and discriminatory in the sense that it covers some rural areas but not others. To put it mildly, it is unsatisfactory that one person might have a service while a neighbour might not. It is also discriminatory given that a free travel scheme is in place but rural residents cannot avail of it, which is wrong.

While the Minister's party gets much support from rural areas, it does not treat those areas well by not ensuring the service is available for use by everybody, not just a select few. For example, a transport initiative is in place to cover part of my constituency of Galway East but a large chunk of the constituency has no service. I do not understand why it will take a total of three years before the Minister reviews the scheme. As a pilot project, why was it not run for one year to assess its operation before making an evaluation and developing proposals to put it on a permanent footing?

The Minister may not be aware that some people in rural Ireland live in a tunnel of loneliness and isolation because they have no contact with others for weeks at a time. If they had a transport service, they could avail of it, perhaps for weekly trips to a local town to do shopping, meet people and have some contact with others.

Does the Minister have the will to take this on now rather than waiting for 2006? The scheme has proved itself and the Minister and his officials have enough experience of it to make a judgment as to how to move forward. There is no need to wait until 2006. It is unfair on rural people who do not have a service to drag the process out for another year and a half.

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