Rural transport report delay
Deputy Nolan complained that a promised rural transport report had been delayed and said rural communities were being ignored. The Taoiseach said he would ask the Minister to reply and stressed that rural routes and services were expanding.
I want to raise the issue of rural transport. There is a commitment on page 50 of the programme for Government that a report on rural transport will be made available within six months. The issues to be examined are, for example, the sustainability and accessibility of existing routes, in addition to the potential of new routes. This is a huge issue in rural communities, as the Taoiseach knows. I was very disappointed to learn the report will not be available until 2018 because the work simply has not been carried out. What that is saying to rural communities is: "Put up and shut up". We will not put up and we certainly will not shut up either. We want action on this. We want basic services and transport in our communities. This issue has been raised a number of times and I certainly will be raising it again until it is resolved.
Comment on this
I will ask the Minister, Deputy Ross, to correspond with the Deputy about the matter. I am not familiar with the details of the particular report in question but there is absolutely no need for the Deputy to either put up or shut up. I can assure her we are very committed to expanding rural transport routes and, indeed, the number of rural transport routes this year is 1,300, whereas only two years ago it was just over 1,000. While we might not be producing enough reports to satisfy the Deputy, we are certainly increasing the number of routes and services.