Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her reply. I am glad she said it would be kept under constant review. While I recognise that with the Covid pandemic additional services will not be coming on stream because of uncertainty over the use of services, the Minister's answer clearly demonstrates the importance of the scheme. It is a very good €95 million investment in people, in human resources. With 980,000 direct customers and 1.6 million able to avail of the scheme, it is clear how important it is.

Some time ago I read documentation in which Irish Rural Link and other organisations that are strong advocates for development in rural areas estimated that up to 80% of the people living in rural areas who qualify for free travel are unable to use that free-travel pass because the services are not available. We need to achieve a broadening of public transport to ensure that at least some limited services would be available for people living in remote areas and that they should not be denied the opportunity to use their free-travel pass when a public service is available.

The Minister knows as well as I do that some services would not be viable if they did not have access to the free-travel scheme. It needs to be expanded and we need to eliminate the discrimination against the rural population.

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