Written answers
Tuesday, 17 November 2015
Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport
Rural Transport Programme
Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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612. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if the value for money on the rural transport programme report which was completed in 2009 recommended that management of the programme be transferred to the National Transport Authority to achieve savings in the administration of the programme. [40199/15]
Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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614. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport given that the value for money recommendations indicated that the rural transport programme might benefit from being under the aegis of the National Transport Authority's responsibility, his views that its ethos and fundamental structures require change, in that it was only recommended that economies and skills on the supply side be looked at; and his further view that the authority has gone too far. [40201/15]
Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 612 and 614 together.
A Value for Money and Policy Review of the Rural Transport Programme (RTP) was completed in June 2011 and published in January 2012, following submission to Government. Amongst its recommendations was that options to reduce the administrative budget further could potentially be achieved with the transfer of the Programme to the National Transport Authority (NTA). Following a Government Decision in January 2012 responsibility for the integration of local and rural transport services, including management of the RTP, was assigned to the NTA with effect from 1 April 2012. This includes responsibility for the implementation of the organisational restructuring of the RTP which was recommended in the Value for Money and Policy Review Report.
The restructuring of the RTP was announced in July 2013 and the consolidation of the 35 RTP Groups, which had been delivering RTP services, into 17 Transport Co-ordination Units has recently been completed. The aim of the restructuring is to protect the provision of rural transport services into the future by ensuring a more efficient delivery structure that maximises integration with other State transport services and by making the Programme a sustainable part of the public transport system. The NTA, with its national remit for securing the provision of public passenger transport services, is well placed to develop better links between local and rural transport services and scheduled bus and rail services.
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