Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Rural transport remains in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport but I will be co-ordinating all of the Departments in terms of the focus on rural Ireland. Rural transport is a tremendous benefit to rural Ireland. We all have our local transport companies and one sees how successfully it regenerates small towns when people are brought in on pension day. It is great for towns and we must continue to build on that. In my county, work with the health service is being built on. I want to impress on the House how important rural transport is. We have the Leader programme but I do not have the part of the rural development fund that relates to farming, which belongs to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. We also have the rural economic development zones and that is something that has been developed.

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