Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I appreciate the difficulties but I understand that there are now more than 90,000 people on the waiting lists. As the Minister of State noted, this will seriously impact our efforts to get young people back into employment, education and training. The Government's strategy for recovery aims to target high rates of youth unemployment. It will be very difficult for a lot of young people to take up work if they do not have access to their own transport. I appreciate the challenges involved here but if the RSA sets a target of early 2022 this issue will have a knock-on impact throughout 2021.I ask that this aspect be communicated back, because it will impact on the Government's economic recovery strategy as much as anything else. As the Minister of State referred to, this concerns transport poverty especially, particularly in the case of young people.