Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. The provision of public transport services in rural areas is being developed under the Department of Transport's rural transport programme. The Government's commitment to rural transport is clearly stated in Towards 2016 and in the national development plan. The development of rural transport is also a key objective in the Government's sustainable travel and transport plan, known as "Smarter Travel- A Sustainable Transport Future" and in the Department's sectoral plan under the Disability Act 2005.

The renewed Government programme also contains a commitment to explore the provision of a full-scale transport system in rural areas using the network expertise of Bus Éireann and the resources of the school and health transport systems. The rural transport programme was launched in February 2007 and mainstreamed the former pilot rural transport Initiative, which ran from 2002 to 2006. Its principal objective is to help to address social exclusion related to unmet public transport needs in rural areas. Thirty six rural community transport groups are being funded under the rural transport programme, which is now operational in every county. These groups are working towards maximising coverage in their operational areas, having regard to local public transport service needs and the availability of resources.

Pobal administers the programme on behalf of the Department of Transport and neither the Minister nor his Department has any role in the day-to-day management of the programme, including allocating specific funds to particular groups or for services. Arrangements for the provision of services funded under the programme are matters for individual rural community transport groups. Local communities know best where the transport needs are in their rural areas and how best to address those needs. The Department of Transport's role is one of facilitator through financial and administrative support, but communities themselves have the lead role in developing the transport services to fulfil these needs.

The maintenance and development of rural passenger transport services is one of the principal objectives of the Department of Transport. It is, therefore, vitally important that the resources available for rural transport are utilised as cost-effectively as possible and that best possible service is achieved from these resources. In that regard, earlier this year, the Minister for Transport asked Bus Éireann to work with Pobal to explore the potential for achieving better rural transport service delivery through closer working and better resource utilisation between the various service providers. Arising from this, a number of pilot initiatives have been instigated to explore how the various transport services in rural areas might be jointly developed so as to enhance their coverage and take-up.

In addition to Bus Éireann, the initiatives involve the Health Service Executive, in its capacity for providing transport to access health services; the Department of Education and Science, in respect of school transport services; Pobal, in respect of rural transport services; and voluntary bodies, such as the Irish Wheelchair Association. Pilot projects are being developed in the north west and north east to explore how existing transport providers might make more effective use of their individual resources by working in closer co-operation with each other. The types of pilots envisaged for collaborative action include "collect and connect" type services; hospital feeder services; co-ordination of disability services; ticketing integration; co-ordinated information provision and journey planning; and increased synchronisation of partner systems and processes. The Minister for Transport is hopeful that these pilots will prove successful and so provide the paradigm for rural transport in the future. The Minister looks forward with interest to hearing of the outcomes to these pilots in due course.

As part of the north east pilot projects, a commuter "connect and collect" service serving the Stamullen area is being trialled. The pilot service is operated by Flexibus, the community transport group which operates rural transport programme-funded services in County Meath, and it involves morning and evening bus services which link with the Bus Éireann service between Drogheda and Dublin. The pilot projects do not have an identified budget line as they are primarily about utilising existing financial and operational resources in the best manner possible in order to meet their objectives. However, a small amount of additional rural transport programme funding was made available to Flexibus to pilot the Stamullen commuter "connect and collect" service to the end of 2009. The project partners recognised the very considerable potential this service could offer in providing public transport to a community of some 4,000 persons and considered it was important that the pilot should be supported.

It is not possible at this stage to make any commitments in relation to funding for the rural transport programme for 2010. As Deputies are aware, the Report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes recommends the termination of the rural transport programme. The Government is considering all the recommendations in the special group's report and decisions will be made by the Government in the context of the budget for 2010 and later years. The Department of Transport has received an application from Flexibus for funding under the Department's Smarter Travel project fund in respect of a proposal to provide an integrated commuter service with Bus Éireann and Irish Rail. The proposal involves a service that links commuters in Stamullen, Greenanstown area, to the mainline service to Dublin operated by Bus Éireann and Irish Rail.

The Smarter Travel project fund was established in June 2009 and the closing date for submitting an application was on 9 September. The Flexibus application is one of 121 applications received by the Department. The assessment process for the applications is nearing completion, as Deputy Byrne pointed out, and successful projects will be announced in the next few weeks.

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