Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of the smart villages and rural towns meeting being held in Mountbellew this evening. The venue has been selected by Galway Rural Development, GRD, to receive this type of funding. I encourage people in the local area to come along. The meeting begins at 7.30 p.m. this evening and it will be great to be able to see the opportunities for funding. Mountbellew is now one of the campuses of the Atlantic Technological University, ATU. An agricultural college is also based there and people will know of Mountbellew very well from that context. Now, however, the town is also a new campus for the ATU. Equally, consideration is being given to developing the town in other ways.

We also need to see more rural transport links. In the context of the Connecting Ireland plan for transport, one example of what is needed is that there is no bus link to bring people from Mountbellew to the train station in Ballinasloe, for example, or to Portiuncula Hospital, or vice versa. Equally, it is difficult for students to get to the campus. It is important therefore when we are looking at our smart villages and rural towns initiative that we also examine how we can get funding for rural transport links.