Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I would like to know if additional funding is available for the 34 important and successful rural transport initiatives throughout the country. It is estimated that it has cost approximately €9 million to administer the scheme since it was established in 2002. The scheme, which has improved the health and well-being of its users, has provided considerable social benefits which far outweigh its costs. The rural transport initiative was established by the Department of Transport on a pilot basis to provide transport to people in rural areas who were being excluded because more conventional transport methods and services were not available, accessible or afforded to them locally. By the end of 2003, over 300,000 people had used an estimated 300 routes in the 34 pilot areas throughout the country. The numbers availing of the service have continued to increase.

In most cases, passengers are picked up at their doors and taken to the nearest town for the purpose of collecting their pensions, shopping, medical appointments or social visits. They are returned to their doors several hours later. There has been unprecedented demand for the service. However, that has led to funding shortfalls and providers are now being forced to cut back on several such very valuable services.

The need for the rural transport initiative and the importance of the scheme are highlighted by research carried out by the Department of Transport before the scheme began that showed that 40% of people living in rural Ireland do not have access to even a basic bus or rail service. That is especially true of the western countries from where I hail. Some 20% have never had access to a car for shopping or health checks, and the most affected are the elderly, young people — for getting to and from work — those with illnesses and disabilities and those on low incomes.

An evaluation report published over the summer on the rural transport initiative stated that in most parts of the country it has been very encouraging. In my own area, we have a few projects that have been extremely successful. From May until the end of December 2003 in the Aughrim-Kilmore rural transport area, there were 8,084 passengers. The figure for 2004 so far exceeds 10,000, making it a major success.

The rural transport initiative has been described as the greatest single benefit for rural Ireland since the rural electrification programme of the 1940s. The issue is that the Department of Transport has not opted to mainstream the project, despite the fact that the scheme has been evaluated by outside consultants, who found it very worthwhile. Instead the Government has opted to leave it as a pilot project until 2006.

The scheme was first announced in 2001 and three years on one asks why the Government will not commit to it. The budget allocated to the scheme has not increased from €3 million annually since 2001, which is a cutback given the increased costs. The lack of funding has prevented the scheme from expanding the number and frequency of services required, despite the great demand, especially in rural areas. If it were in an urban area, a subsidy would be provided and it would be unacceptable for there to be cutbacks. It is unacceptable that such cutbacks are occurring and I ask the Minister to redress the problems and provide funding for a very valuable service.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The rural transport initiative, or RTI, has been under way since 2002 and is funded by the Department of Transport. Under the scheme, funding is provided for 34 rural community organisations around the country to address the transport needs of their areas through the provision of local transport services. Area Development Management Limited, or ADM, manages the RTI on behalf of the Department of Transport. ADM has been fully responsible for the administration of the initiative, from the initial selection of the groups to be funded to the decisions regarding the specific annual allocations to individual projects.

Expenditure under the RTI was some €6 million in the two-year period ending in December 2003. At that point the pilot initiative was due to end, but further funding of €3 million was allocated to it for 2004 to facilitate a full appraisal of the initiative. On foot of the principal recommendation of the appraisal, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, recently extended the initiative for a further two years. The Estimates provision for the RTI for 2005 is €3.1 million, an increase of 3%. That funding allocation of some €12 million over the life of the RTI to the end of 2005 compares very favourably to the total of €4.4 million earmarked for the RTI when it was originally mooted in the National Development Plan 2000-2006.

It is understood that the RTI projects also benefit each year from funding provided by the Department of Social and Family Affairs arising from the application of the free travel scheme to the RTI. In addition, ADM has informed the Department of Transport that some RTI projects are generating additional funds from the provision of transport services to health boards and from other sources. From the outset, RTI projects have been encouraged to explore innovative ways in which their services can be partly financed from the local economy. The degree to which prospective RTI groups put forward proposals for co-financing and additional resources to be secured from non-Exchequer sources was among the operational criteria used to assess the original applications for funding.

The RTI is now operational in virtually all counties, with some 2,500 transport services being provided on approximately 380 new rural routes established under the initiative. Some 20,000 people are currently using the RTI transport services every month. In deciding on the extension of the RTI to the end of 2006, the Minister for Transport was conscious that many of the pilot projects became fully operational only in 2003. He was also conscious of the fact that continuing the RTI to the end of 2006 will ensure that the lifespan of the initiative will dovetail with the scope of the National Development Plan 2000-2006.

The extension will facilitate a more comprehensive appraisal of the effectiveness of the pilot initiative in addressing the transport needs of rural areas. It will enable the 34 projects further to explore models of transport provision and strategically develop approaches to designing, planning, co-ordinating, integrating, procuring and providing transport in areas where it was traditionally considered difficult to do so. In providing additional time for the RTI projects to mature fully, the Minister is facilitating the emergence of models of best practice in the provision of rural transport services in operational and organisational management.