Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Before the quorum was called, I was talking about the many young people who would not dream of taking alcohol and driving at the same time. This is to be welcomed. They come up with their own solutions to it, particularly those who live in rural areas, and I very much welcome that.

This legislation has opened up a debate on rural isolation that is very welcome. In 1999, I ran for the local authority, which was my first foray into politics. One of the issues I raised at the time was transport, which was an important issue for me as a young woman with small children living in rural Ireland and having no access to transport of any sort during the day. I remember people asking me what I was talking about and saying that everybody had a car. However, I knew that while people may have had a car, they might not have had access to it when they needed it and so it became a very important issue for me. When the then Government introduced the rural transport scheme on a pilot basis, I was one of the founder members of my local rural transport scheme. It was an eye-opener to discover that I had identified the need that was there but when we started to ask people what they required, we discovered that the needs were even greater than we had anticipated. The scheme in question was the west Offaly rural transport programme. We had runs that brought predominantly women into their local town. It then broadened out and many men started to use it. People used it for a variety of reasons. They used it to do their shopping and for the social journey in and out. They used it to go to the library or to go into the local town to have a cup of coffee.

They used it for a variety of reasons. I know one couple who used it. The woman did the shopping and the man went to the pub for a couple of pints. They met up again at 1 p.m. and headed home. The scheme continues to work very well.

I was one of the members of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party who talked about the potential of what is now known nationally as the Local Link in combating further rural isolation because the majority of services across the country only operate during the day. I have always been of the view that there is huge scope for Local Link services to run at night in order to give people access to their local hall for a drama show, to go out to play cards in their local community, go to the local pub, if that is what they want, or to visit somebody in their local village who they have not seen for a while. This has always been about making the Local Link bus available to people. The beauty of the Local Link service is that it is door to door. A very simple system was devised. All someone has to do is let the Local Link operator know that he or she needs the bus at a particular time on a particular day. The only time a person needs to call the operator again is if he or she is sick or something like that. The bus turns up like clockwork on the day.

In some areas, transport schemes developed further and began bringing young people to third-level institutions. We had a pocket of young people who were in a particular area and we got a hackney to bring them from their village to the nearest pick-up point so that they would get to Athlone Institute of Technology for the start of lectures.

There is a great deal of flexibility in the service. The operators are fantastic. The standard of the bus drivers and their staff is exemplary. All of them have done their training. They are the people who will know their customers best. The dedication of the drivers in the Local Link areas is fantastic. To digress somewhat, during the awful winter of 2010 they knew the older people and that they would be afraid to go out in the snow and ice. Those drivers went around and collected people's shopping lists, did the shopping for them and brought it back. That is how fantastic that Local Link service is, and I would advocate strongly for it. I was very happy when my colleague, Deputy Heydon, led the way with the idea and contacted the Minister, Deputy Ross, about the potential of the service. I sincerely hope that the National Transport Authority, NTA, will consider this very carefully.

Again, we are looking at evidence. There is discussion about the busiest routes in respect of which Local Link operators believe there is potential. In the Laoighis-Offaly constituency, the Borris-in-Ossory to Portlaoise route has been identified in this regard. The last run on that route is at 6.10 p.m. and the Local Link operator is looking at extending it to 11.30 p.m. twice a week. The neighbouring one to me, which is one of our most successful runs, is in the Kinnitty area, where there is potential to have a service three days a week - Wednesday, Friday and Saturday - with the last run leaving at midnight. Currently, the last bus leaves at 5 p.m. The other route in the area is Portarlington to Emo. Currently, the last run is at 5 p.m. but that may be extended to 11.30 p.m.

There is great potential in this because it allows people to feel safe. There is also the sociability that travelling on a bus together brings. There are people who never travelled on a bus because they did not have access to one or they had their car but, through infirmity, nervousness or age, they are no longer able to drive. They found that the journey on the bus, rather than the destination, was part of the enjoyment of the experience.

The involvement of hackneys in terms of supporting that door-to-door service is very important because what I am hearing is that people are concerned about rural isolation. That is the reason we should push forward with this proposal. It is older people about whom we are concerned. Many younger people would never think of drinking and driving. We need to examine the facts. If a life is saved as a result of this legislation, then it is right that we proceed with it..

We can consider the evidence and number of road traffic accidents there have been resulting in fatal collisions. Alcohol consumption was a factor in 38% of them. All these collisions involve individuals and families who are negatively impacted, whether they consumed alcohol themselves or it was somebody else who consumed the alcohol. We have to listen to the families involved in campaigning for safer roads to ensure that what happened to their families will not happen to the family of anybody else. Unfortunately, men are more likely than women to drink and drive. I welcome the Road Safety Authority, RSA, campaigns engaging with young people on many different levels, including what speeding does, as well as what alcohol and drug consumption can do. I commend it on the positive way it is engaging people. I notice its chairperson has been very concerned about the number of road traffic collisions, as well as the fact that alcohol is a factor in some of them.

Forensic evidence has been produced and we cannot just dismiss figures as if they mean nothing. Every figure is somebody who died and a person or families have been affected. There was forensic analysis of 867 fatal collisions indicating that alcohol was a contributory factor in almost two fifths of those collisions. It is something we cannot ignore. Of those, 286 people died and went to their grave, and that is not to mention the 69 people injured, some seriously, as a result.

I totally understand the concerns people have around the rural isolation of people and particularly older men and women. I am aware there are many widows living in rural Ireland and they are the most keen users of the transport services, as women live longer. Some women are of an age where they are unable to drive, having relied on husbands who died before them. They were suddenly isolated during the day as well as at night. They rely very heavily on family members. I genuinely appeal to people not to dismiss the potential of the Local Link. I hope the National Transport Authority, NTA, will run with this and let those pilot schemes go on. The Local Link services have been there for a very long time and we should now look to expand the services into the evenings as well as during the day. It is only when one asks what people need that one finds the types of routes required and the number of people who will start to use them.

There were 947 people killed in 867 collisions and all this data was analysed. Alcohol was a contributory factor in 38% of driver deaths, 30% of motorcyclist deaths, 47% of pedestrian deaths and 42% of passenger deaths. The data indicates 86% of drivers and 51% of passengers not wearing seat belts who had consumed alcohol were killed. We must not forget that the motivation behind the legislation is to save people's lives. It is really important we remember that as well as the people tragically killed. Their families are certainly reminding us of them. It is also important to recognise that, unfortunately, young men are more inclined to drink and drive. We really need to encourage them to get away from the idea that somebody can be a very safe driver after consuming several units of alcohol. It is something about which we must be very careful.

We hear much about single vehicle collisions in our news reports and wonder how in heaven's name they happen.

In fact, the evidence tells us that it is more likely to occur when drink-driving is involved and judgment has been impaired. We have to examine how best to deal with this. If one looks at other measures that have been taken over the years, the introduction of random breath-testing, for example, the number of drivers who tested positive at checkpoints fell dramatically. It was four out of every 200 in 2006, and it went down to one out of 200 in 2009, which is only a period of three years. It shows that it has an impact. The cross-Government, cross-sectoral Healthy Ireland approach, the whole drive of health and well-being in our society that others have referred to with regard to educating young people and so on are crucially important. Our actions really take effect and we find that there is a generation of young people who would not even dream of drinking and driving.

To come back to the pilot that has been suggested for the rural link, the cost would not be a lot. I understand it is approximately €1 million. That would provide over 11,000 extra trips around rural Ireland per annum, which is a significant number. I remind people that free travel passes are also accepted on local link buses so if people have a free travel pass, they will be able to use it. That is worth considering. I appeal to people to give this suggested solution to social isolation an opportunity. If I had listened in 1999 to people telling me that there was no need for rural transport, we would never have been motivated enough to apply for funding when the pilot scheme started and now we can see the huge benefits to it. Any kind of change in this type of legislation is always difficult but we must not forget about the evidence that exists and that we want to save people's lives, which is the driving force behind this.

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