Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was very fortunate to secure an additional €5 million in budget 2024 specifically for transport. Both the Department and I are banging our heads together at the moment. However, I am very clear that there are three elements within all of this, one of which would be to remove the inequality whereby people have to pay to attend a day service. The second element is with regard to upgrading some of the fleet within our service providers in once-off funding. The third part would be to work with the likes of Independent Living Movement Ireland, for instance, Galway Independent Living Movement, which already provides transport on a door-to-door basis and operates seven days a week, which gives people the sense of choice as to when they want to access an accessible vehicle to go to functions that are not part of a day service provision. I am currently working on that. I have the money secured. I am told that every time I wish to do a spending line, I have to go to the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform for permission.I find that highly frustrating seeing as I secured the funding within the budget, but that is exactly where we are at. My timeline is within the current three months.