Marie Moloney (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State. Little did he think, a couple of years ago when he was a Member of this House, that he would be coming in here to face Senators who were looking for answers from him. I thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive report he has put before us today. I realise he has done a lot of work since he took up office and that he is very passionate about the issue. I am not going to go over all the things that people have said. We all know how valuable rural transport is. Coming from a rural area, I am fully aware of the importance of rural transport, especially to the elderly, who avail of the service to collect their pensions or go to day care centres or active retirement groups. I ask the Minister of State to do his best at all times to maintain transport for the people concerned.

I had an issue with one part of the Minister's contribution, in which he said: "In many cases, transport in a local area is arranged by a nurse or carer, who is not someone trained to think about efficient transport." I disagree with this. People who are being transported to hospital for treatment would prefer to have efficient transport. The Minister of State knows this because he kindly met a deputation from the Kerry Cancer Support Group, which runs the Kerry Cork Health Link which takes patients suffering from cancer from Kerry to Cork for treatment, sometimes every day. For those who do not know about this service, it is provided by the cancer care group and funded completely through voluntary fund-raising. It does not receive a penny from the State, yet it transports full buses of patients up and down to Cork. Cork University Hospital organises appointment times for patients from Kerry around the Kerry Cork Health Link. This is a valuable service which saves the HSE a lot of money because the executive mainly provides transport in the form of taxis. I am hoping for co-operation between the Departments of Health and Social Protection with regard to allowing people to use the free travel pass on this service. I know the Department is mulling over this at the moment and I hope it comes back with a satisfactory response.

There is another issue I would like to raise, although it may not be under the remit of the Minister of State, but it is bugging the people. It is a simple thing, namely, the price of an adult ticket with Iarnród Éireann.