Paddy McHugh (Galway East, Independent)
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Question 246: To ask the Minister for Transport if he will put in place a public transport service in north east Galway similar to that available in south east Galway to cater for the needs of elderly persons with no transportation of their own to local towns and services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30293/06]

Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Rural Transport Initiative (RTI) is a pilot scheme, under which funding is made available to thirty-four community-based organisations across the country, including one project which is operational in south east Galway, to address the transport needs of their rural areas through the provision of local transport services.

Pobal administers the initiative on behalf of the Department of Transport, and makes specific allocations to individual project groups from funding provided by the Department. Neither the Minister for Transport nor his Department have any function in relation to specific allocations to individual project groups. Similarly, Pobal, together with the individual RTI project groups, are solely responsible for all the operational aspects of the initiative, including the specific services to be provided and the methods of provision.

Following the success of the pilot phase of the RTI, my colleague the Minister for Transport announced his intention to conclude this phase at the end of 2006 and to put the Initiative on a permanent footing from 2007 onwards. Proposals in that regard have recently been the focus of a public consultation process and the Department will now proceed to finalise its policy options with due consideration for the comments received. In developing proposals for the roll-out of the RTI post-2006, the Department will pay particular attention to the transport needs of rural communities that do not currently have access to public transport.

The Department has been steadily increasing the funding for the RTI in recent years. Euro 4.5 million was provided for the RTI in 2005, which was a 50% increase on the 2004 allocation while the 2006 allocation is Euro 5.1 million. By the end of 2006 total funding for the initiative will have exceeded Euro 18.5 million. This compares with the original proposed allocation of Euro 4.4 million in the National Development Plan 2000-2006.

Based on the 2005 allocation of Euro 4.5 million, and in parallel with the implementation of the Government's ten-year Transport Investment Framework, Transport 21, the Department will double the cash funding available to the RTI by 2007. Thereafter, the funding available for rural transport services will steadily increase; ultimately to a cash level about four times the 2005 allocation.