Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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111. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the engagement that she has had with Department of Transport on the lack of rural transport as a consequence of private bus operators curtailing their services. [53873/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Our Rural Future is the government's national rural development policy. It sets out an ambitious blueprint for the development of, and investment in, rural Ireland over a five-year period.

It is a whole-of-Government policy, and the more than 160 measures set out within it are being delivered by the Departments with responsibility for the relevant policy areas, including the Department of Transport.

The policy was developed following extensive consultation with rural stakeholders and communities. Issues of rural transport provision featured strongly in those discussions, leading to a strong focus on improving the provision of transport and other services in rural areas.

Our Rural Future Progress Reports to date have reflected substantial progress on rural transport measures such as the expansion of Local Link services, investments in greenways and active travel infrastructure, as well as other public transport upgrades to the bus fleet and train stations.

The development of the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan will further expand the public transport network in rural areas and increase service levels, including a commitment to increase the number and frequency of rural bus services. This includes further enhancement of Local Link services, which have seen funding more than doubled to €28 million since 2016.

My Department is continuing to engage with the Department of Transport in relation to Our Rural Future. in August this year we hosted a Rural Ideas Forum event on the topic of Public Transport and the Opportunities for Rural Ireland, at which Local Link providers and the National Transport Authority spoke.

The Department of Transport is also a member of the Our Rural Future Implementation Advisory Group which meets twice yearly and supports the effective and sustainable implementation of the policy.

We will shortly begin work on developing a Work Programme for 2023, and this will include bilateral meetings with all relevant Departments, including the Department of Transport.

I am committed to ensuring that we now build on the momentum achieved in the first year of Our Rural Future, by continuing to deliver on initiatives in areas such as rural transport that deliver real benefits to rural Ireland.