Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The NTA has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public transport services nationally. The NTA also has national responsibility for integrated local and rural transport, including management of the rural transport programme, which operates under the Local Link brand. From a policy perspective, there is a need for a fundamental change in the nature of transport in Ireland and the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future commits to making public transport and active travel better and more accessible.

The Deputy will probably be aware that my Department has already been undertaking a review of sustainable mobility policy, which incorporates a review of public transport in rural areas. In this context, the Department held a public consultation process between November 2019 and February 2020, and included a stakeholder event in the course of that consultation. Over 250 submissions were received as part of this consultation process and I published a report on it last week. I intend to develop a new policy framework for the next ten years that can provide a strategic backdrop to the increased investment planned by this Government across the sustainable mobility programme. The new policy statement will be informed by the review of the previous policy framework, known as Smarter Travel, and submissions received during my Department's consultation process. Other stakeholders' views will also be taken into account. This will provide a platform to advance the ambitions of the programme for Government in the area of sustainable travel, and will replace the previous Smarter Travel policy from 2009. Our programme for Government commitments on public transport in rural areas will be progressed in the context of that new policy statement.

Among the measures we will prioritise are a sustainable rural mobility plan to ensure settlements over a certain size can connect to the national public transport system, expanding the Local Link rural transport service and prioritising public transport projects that enhance regional and rural connectivity. Meanwhile, the NTA has undertaken a nationwide study to inform its approach to rolling out improved public transport across the country in areas, excluding the greater Dublin area, regional cities and large towns, by providing better connections between villages and towns and linking them with an enhanced regional network connecting cities and regional centres. Arising from this study, I am advised that the NTA is starting on a two-phase consultation on its proposals, entitled Connecting Ireland. This will begin with local authority officials and other key stakeholders engaging on the main concepts of Connecting Ireland, and will then be followed by a wider public consultation on the proposals in the second quarter of 2021.

See this speech in context