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

Following on from the previous question, there is a lot of emphasis on urban Ireland because of the issue of apartment living. We must be very clear that in the changes we need to make, it is about rural and urban. It is about towns and villages, country and city. This is particularly the case with meeting the climate change challenges we face where we need a switch to public transport and to reduce the demand to travel by creating services in our towns, so everything is close by and people do not have to travel all the time. However, as well as the commitment to housing mentioned earlier, this requires a commitment to public transport. Again, in the context of the Covid crisis, we should look at the figures. The spending is mainly because of the crisis but it is still an indication this is important. In 2019, €300 million was spent on subventing public transport. That increased to €610 million last year and €650 million this year. The rural bus services are particularly important because as the Deputy said, there are many people who do not have access a car and who have just as much of a right and entitlement to be able to move around, get to the hospital, to other appointments or to wherever they need to go to.

One good bit of news is that I met the commercial bus operators. Bus Éireann also runs these kind of commercial operations with specific supports to keep them going. I refer not just to the public service obligation, PSO, services but also commercial operators because they were in real difficulty during the Covid crisis. I met them in recent months. The support was due to come to an end and they asked that I keep it going for another few months because we are coming to the end of this, lockdown is starting to ease and we do not want to fall at the last hurdle and lose services at the last minute. I talked to the NTA, as did the industry groups. I was very glad to commit to extending that into the summer months, so we do not have a cliff edge in support for public bus services.

Bus Éireann has a key role. It is true the company is changing the routes, adding some new routes and taking some services from others; it must manage that as it sees fit. It is also operating these services, the likes of route 51, in a commercial market where there are a lot of private operators as well. Bus Éireann must allocate on the basis of where it sees it can best meet customer demand. We have given a clear commitment that a reduction in services cannot be done where it leaves people without a commensurate service, be that private or otherwise, so we will not leave people without.

I have another bit of news, which is a positive development. To take up what Deputy Canney said about Local Link and the need for additional services, recognising that and that we need to change and be more efficient is important, the NTA has been working with Leitrim County Council on a pilot scheme I hope to announce shortly. It would be for three years and would look at a really innovative way of combining our HSE public transport services with Local Link and bus services so we start developing new rural bus transport services. Let us not do it the way we always did but look to innovate and try to create new services. It has not been announced yet but I hope it will be really significant for the people of County Leitrim. There is potential if the pilot works for it to be spread elsewhere, whereby we increase, enhance and allow the people of rural Ireland make the switch to a better system using public transport in a low-emissions world.

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