Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The rural transport initiative, or RTI, has been under way since 2002 and is funded by the Department of Transport. Under the scheme, funding is provided for 34 rural community organisations around the country to address the transport needs of their areas through the provision of local transport services. Area Development Management Limited, or ADM, manages the RTI on behalf of the Department of Transport. ADM has been fully responsible for the administration of the initiative, from the initial selection of the groups to be funded to the decisions regarding the specific annual allocations to individual projects.

Expenditure under the RTI was some €6 million in the two-year period ending in December 2003. At that point the pilot initiative was due to end, but further funding of €3 million was allocated to it for 2004 to facilitate a full appraisal of the initiative. On foot of the principal recommendation of the appraisal, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, recently extended the initiative for a further two years. The Estimates provision for the RTI for 2005 is €3.1 million, an increase of 3%. That funding allocation of some €12 million over the life of the RTI to the end of 2005 compares very favourably to the total of €4.4 million earmarked for the RTI when it was originally mooted in the National Development Plan 2000-2006.

It is understood that the RTI projects also benefit each year from funding provided by the Department of Social and Family Affairs arising from the application of the free travel scheme to the RTI. In addition, ADM has informed the Department of Transport that some RTI projects are generating additional funds from the provision of transport services to health boards and from other sources. From the outset, RTI projects have been encouraged to explore innovative ways in which their services can be partly financed from the local economy. The degree to which prospective RTI groups put forward proposals for co-financing and additional resources to be secured from non-Exchequer sources was among the operational criteria used to assess the original applications for funding.

The RTI is now operational in virtually all counties, with some 2,500 transport services being provided on approximately 380 new rural routes established under the initiative. Some 20,000 people are currently using the RTI transport services every month. In deciding on the extension of the RTI to the end of 2006, the Minister for Transport was conscious that many of the pilot projects became fully operational only in 2003. He was also conscious of the fact that continuing the RTI to the end of 2006 will ensure that the lifespan of the initiative will dovetail with the scope of the National Development Plan 2000-2006.

The extension will facilitate a more comprehensive appraisal of the effectiveness of the pilot initiative in addressing the transport needs of rural areas. It will enable the 34 projects further to explore models of transport provision and strategically develop approaches to designing, planning, co-ordinating, integrating, procuring and providing transport in areas where it was traditionally considered difficult to do so. In providing additional time for the RTI projects to mature fully, the Minister is facilitating the emergence of models of best practice in the provision of rural transport services in operational and organisational management.