Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, I raised with the Deputy Leader the withdrawal of services by Bus Éireann. I am pleased to say that at its meeting this morning, the Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport, of which I am a member, has agreed to invite representatives from Bus Éireann and the National Transport Authority to come before it in the next two weeks in order to discuss their policies. I wish to raise with the Leader the role of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in respect of this matter and the fact that it is responsible for providing funding for transport in this country. Such funding includes the subsidies provided to CIE and the money invested in the rural transport programme, which has been significantly cut in recent years. It appears that the proposal I made yesterday - I also made it at this morning's meeting of the committee - is being increasingly embraced by those who are following the debate on this important issue and its impact on rural areas.

The matter which the Department now needs to address is that which relates to connectivity. The Department should open up particular bus routes through towns and villages and allow private operators to apply for licences in respect of them under the public service obligation, thereby ensuring that any services provided would be subsidised. There is no question that in light of the small populations living in such towns and villages and their environs, the services to which I refer would not be commercially viable. This problem in this regard is increasingly circular because if services continue to be withdrawn, fewer people will live in rural areas. As a result, rural Ireland will effectively shut down. I ask the Leader to communicate to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport my suggestion that it issue a statement in respect of its policy on rural transport. I also ask that he encourage it to give urgent consideration to carrying out a review of that policy in the context of its impact on rural Ireland in the aftermath of Bus Éireann's decision to withdraw services from certain towns and villages.

At a meeting of one of the joint committees yesterday, the Minister of State with responsibility for rural development, Deputy Ann Phelan, indicated that - contrary to what the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Alex White previously stated some months ago - the Government is not going to be able to roll out high-speed broadband services. This is another issue that is of pertinence and great importance to those who live in rural areas. I ask that the House be given the opportunity to debate the issue of the expansion of broadband services. Not only is it incumbent on the Government to provide such services to rural areas, it is also incumbent on information communications technology, ICT, companies to do so. I would like to discover the current state of play in respect of this matter, not just in terms of the Government's role but also regarding those of Eircom and all other service providers. If one considers the decline in rural transport services and the lack of proper broadband services in rural areas, one must reach the conclusion that the future for the people in these areas who are trying to engage in entrepreneurship and attract industry and employment is bleak.