Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I know where the Minister of State lives. I have not yet had a cup of tea in his house but I believe my brother has done so. I am very friendly with the Minister of State's mother. This is not personal.

The Minister of State is seeking to cut the number of groups from 36 to 18. We have a three-county structure in place and if this were followed across the board, there would only be eight or nine groups. I am not opposed to or frightened of change. The Minister indicated that local authorities will have a role. They have always had such a role. South Tipperary County Council, Carlow County Council and Kilkenny County Council have been supportive of our project. I was a member of my local council in the past. There is a working group which will be meeting on Monday next. Four or five members of South Tipperary County Council will be attendance at that meeting.

I welcome both the community car scheme and the local area hackney licence scheme and I look forward to the rolling out of both. However, what I am saying is that we already have a template in place and that the Minister of State should use it as an example for other areas in which difficulties have arisen. Ring a Link has made a bid for the local TCU, but so has north Tipperary. Why try to change the system and thereby be obliged to establish a new group in County Tipperary, purchase or lease new buses or hackneys, obtain new booking equipment and employ office staff? I acknowledge the efforts of the innovative manager of Ring a Link, Mr. Jackie Mealy, and his staff, most of whom work only on a part-time basis. Why try to reconstitute a system that already exists? I reiterate the old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

The Minister of State wants it to be complete and cost-effective. Such a template is already in place and it also provides value for money. Many of the schemes in place in other counties are run by volunteers who are doing a great job with limited funding.

We have costed every journey made in the Ring a Link scheme. Of the 500,000 trips taken, 50%, or 250,000, were in south Tipperary. We would love, when 1 million trips have been taken, to be able to state that 500,000 of them were taken in north and south Tipperary. We are ready, willing and able to embrace change. The establishment of a three-county project caused great trauma because we were not happy to join with counties Kilkenny and Carlow. We overcame these difficulties, however, through good volunteers and managed to get the scheme up and running. Problems arose with the Department and local bus companies resisted the project, but we withstood their resistance. A template is now in place and I ask the Minister of State to run with it. In hurling parlance, I ask him to shoot into the open goal rather than wide.

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