Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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733. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he has any planned policy or proposed legislation aimed at combatting rural isolation due to the lack of rural transportation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37438/16]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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My Department provides funding to the National Transport Authority (NTA) for the management of the Rural Transport Programme (RTP). The objective of the RTP is to provide a quality nationwide community based public transport system in rural Ireland which responds to local needs. These needs include isolation in rural areas arising from unmet public transport needs.

A major restructuring of the RTP arising from a 2011 Value for Money and Policy Review, involving the formation of 17 Transport Coordination Units (TCUs) from 35 previously existing rural transport groups, was implemented on a phased basis during 2014 and 2015. The purpose of the restructuring of the RTP 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, in consultation with the TCUs and other relevant stakeholders, is overseeing a number of initiatives to improve connectivity and integration of RTP services with other State funded transport services which will be of particular benefit to those at risk of social exclusion. The restructured RTP offers a structure to integrate rural transport services with other State funded local transport services, to achieve greater synergies, better meet identified transport needs and deliver increased value for money for the exchequer. The NTA is also preparing a report for my Department, in line with the commitment in the Programme for Government, for submission to the Oireachtas Transport Committee, regarding the potential integration with other transport type services such as the HSE transport networks.

The NTA, in its role as regulator of the taxi industry, introduced the Local Area Hackney licence in December 2013. This was recommended in the Taxi Regulation Review Report 2011 as a means of providing a low cost entry to the hackney market for transport provision in rural locations which would otherwise not receive such services. It should be noted that is not intended to replace or displace conventional hackney or taxi services.