Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 338: To ask the Minister for Transport if he is committed to a better rural transport system here; if he has implemented the suggestions put forward in the 2006 public consultation document entitled Progressing Rural Transport in Ireland - A Discussion Paper; his priorities for advancing rural transport under Transport 21; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39263/10]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The mainstreamed Rural Transport Programme (RTP) was launched in February 2007 in line with the principle recommendation of the Fitzpatrick Associates report 'Progressing Rural Public Transport in Ireland' which was circulated by my Department as a discussion document in August 2006. There are commitments to the RTP in the National Development Plan, Towards 2016 and the Department's Sectoral Plan under the Disability Act 2005. The development of rural transport is also a key objective in the Government's sustainable travel and transport plan Smarter Travel – A Sustainable Transport Future. e renewed Government Programme contains a commitment to explore the provision of a full-scale transport system in rural areas using the network expertise of Bus Éireann and the resources of the school and health transport systems and pilot projects have been undertaken in the North East and in the North West in that regard. The pilots are currently being assessed and together with a recently completed exercise to map all transport services in County Louth and a cross-border pilot rural community transport project under the auspices of the British/Irish Council, will feed into the process for developing rural transport policy into the future.