Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Colm McCarthy and an bord snip nua have made several recommendations on where cuts in public spending may be made. It seems that the Government will implement some but not all of the recommendations in the budget. In general there is no point debating every potential cut recommended in the report. It is preferable to wait until the proposed cuts come close to reality. Some may not become a reality. The Tánaiste and a few other Ministers have indicated that some of them make no sense. There are several proposed cuts that I could not even contemplate, one being the proposal to cease funding the rural transport initiative. I was going to read out the reference in the report but the previous speaker has done so. It is an unfortunate paragraph, unclear in its general structure. The bottom line is that there is a proposal to cease funding the programme. Of the €4 billion the Government states it wishes to take out of the economy in expenditure savings, the proposal involves a sum of €11 million, a relatively small amount. I can only hope this is one of those suggestions the Tánaiste considers makes no sense. It is clear there is a major gap between the thinking in the McCarthy report on this matter and the situation on the ground for people living in rural areas.

There is a large rural area in my constituency, Dublin North, and I know the benefits of the initiative. Naul, Garristown, Oldtown, Ballyboughal and Balscadden are the rural villages of north County Dublin. Together with the townlands in between, they make up the rural hinterland of Fingal which is served by the North Fingal Rural Transport Initiative. Passenger numbers in the area have risen, from approximately 7,000 in the first year to about 30,000 last year. Nationally, there were 1.2 million passenger trips last year, with 1,354 volunteers, 326 private operators and 737 drivers. It is and has been a success story. It has helped all members of society, including the elderly, schoolchildren, students, people with disabilities and others. One can ask the elderly population of Garristown, Oldtown, Naul and Ballyboughal who might be looking forward to their outing to bingo in Swords on a Tuesday night about the private sector alternatives. One can ask young parents from Naul or Ballyboughal who depend on the Friday shopping trip to Swords about the under-utilisation of synergies in other services. They would tell us where to get off.

The reality is the rural bus service would not be the success it is today if the motor car alternatives were available, as suggested in the McCarthy report. In the current recession a second runaround car is a luxury many can no longer afford and it is at times like this tht there is a greater need for the service. In 2005 the Minister for Transport stated projects operating under the rural transport initiative had proved to be "a very successful, dynamic and innovative set of projects that collectively make a huge difference to the daily lives of thousands of people in rural Ireland." I agree absolutely with that statement and find it hard to fathom why the Government can now consider scrapping such an important scheme that makes huge strides towards social inclusion. I hope it will not do so.

In its mid-term evaluation of the first National Development Plan in 2003 the ESRI described the then pilot rural initiative as successful in providing those living in rural areas with access to vital services. The Fitzpatrick Associates' report for the Department of Transport, published in 2006, estimated that 380,000 people in rural areas had unmet transport needs. These included older people, young people, those on low incomes and people with mobility, sensory and cognitive impairments. The Government cannot now row back on progress for which rural communities have spent years fighting. They did the footwork in communicating the need for the service and surveying people in rural areas to understand fully their needs. The Government cannot now deny them the chance to get to the big town once a week to go shopping or to bingo, or avail of the opportunity to visit friends, neighbours or relatives once or twice a week.

It seems a special group is disconnected from rural realities and the benefits these transport services provide for people whose means are limited and who have no alternative transport options. The rural transport scheme is very important to the rural economy and is the lifeblood of the rural community. Its removal would be devastating for persons living alone in isolated townlands. An adequate rural transport service is required to ensure those at risk of social exclusion in rural areas have access to essential facilities and public services. It is widely accepted that the availability of transport is key to sustaining rural life.

This cut is deeply unpopular among Fianna Fáil backbench Deputies and Senators who view the McCarthy report as being biased against rural Ireland. I hope this view will finally prevail and that the Minister for Transport will be able to find elsewhere the savings he must make. The rural transport programme should be expanded, not downgraded or discontinued.

I thank the Fine Gael group for giving us the opportunity to debate this very important issue.