Fine Gael/Labour ‘value for money’ review could see funding to vital transport links slashed

Funding fears for rural transport network

BY MARK MOLONEY

SINCE 2006, the Government-funded Rural Transport Programme has provided accesible local transport for rural communities in areas where there are inadequate transport services. Now there is a real fear among rural communities that funding for the scheme is to be axed due to pressure on the Government from the EU/IMF to cut costs.
The scheme is run by not-for-profit and community-based groups. Currently there are 36 rural transport groups operating across the state, providing 1.2 million passenger journeys a year with many of those who use the scheme being elderly people who have no other means of transport.
As well as being a vital link allowing people to attend college, training courses and medical services, the scheme also helps to tackle isolation by ensuring that those without access to private transport can attend social events and functions.
In their Programme for Government, Fine Gael and Labour said that they were commited to retaining and expanding the rural transport network system. Indeed, both groups had opposed proposals made by the McCarthy ‘Bord Snip Nua’ Report in 2009 which recommended that the then Fianna Fáil/Green government cease funding the scheme in order to save €11million. The report argued that, due to the “availability of private sector bus alternatives”, there was no need for the initiative yet a Central Statistcs Office survey that same year indicated that 50% of rural households had difficulty accessing public transport.
Many people in rural areas are worried that Fine Gael and Labour will renege on their position due to pressure from the EU/IMF, as they have already done in other areas.
In response to questions put forward by Sinn Féin Transport spokesperson Dessie Ellis TD this July, Fine Gael Transport Minister Leo Varadkar said “a value for money and policy review of the rural transport scheme” had been completed and that it would be published “later this year”, adding that the findings of the review will be incorporated into the plans for the future of the rural transport scheme.
This answer, coupled with the Government’s unwillingness to publish the report has led to suspicion by many service providers who fear that there is to be a cut in funding, and it could be on a dramatic scale.
Sinn Féin’s Dessie Ellis asked in the Dáil for the Transport Minister to “clarify the position and meet with rural transport providers to hear their concerns and make them aware of the plans arising from the review of the network initiated by the last government”.
When quizzed three months later as to when the report would be published, Junior Transport Minister Alan Kelly (Labour) said it would be published “in the coming weeks”, adding that the transport scheme had been “quite successful in some areas and less successful in others”. Kelly went on to say:
“It is necessary to examine how we can bring together bus services, whether provided by Bus Éireann or community or voluntary groups, and examine all other services in an area so there can be greater connectivity while we make the money we have go further.”
Such a statement seems to indicate that the Government is intent on cutting funding to the rural transport scheme.
Speaking in the Seanad on the issue of possible cuts to funding, Sinn Féin Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh, who spent a number of years on the Bealach Connemara rural transport initiative, said:
“Bealach was always inundated with applications and we never had enough money to service every group that required it. I am not just referring to older people but also to young people attending sports events and youth clubs and to people who were travelling between villages and trying to connect with other services.
“The last cut saw a reduction from €11million to €10.62million. The difference equates to half the pension recently paid to a senior civil servant. How many could have been serviced through the use of that money or an even larger sum? We are told repeatedly that we must take cutbacks and tighten our belts. The Government is tightening its belt in some respects but not in others and it us unfair that this money is not being spent on rural transport and the like.”
This previous €380,000 cut to rural transport funding resulted in major difficulties in many parts of Ireland. In July of this year, Donegal North-East TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn highlighted the fact that some not-for-profit rural transport schemes which employed assistants to aid elderly and disabled passengers were being forced to charge these passengers due to cutbacks.
The possibility of much more serious cuts to rural transport services is worrying rural communities right across the state. Sinn Féin’s Cork South-West representative, Paul Hayes, told An Phoblacht there is a very real fear that rural transport services will suffer devastating cuts as part of the upcoming budget.
“The proposal to axe the Rural Transport Programme, as per the McCarthy Report, is short-sighted and callous and takes no regard of the needs of the people of rural Ireland.
“When I canvassed the rural areas of West Cork during last February’s general election campaign, I met with many carers and home-helps who told me how their hours had been cut and that the elderly were essentially being cut off and left to fend for themselves.
“We had a terrible case last winter when an elderly man living alone on the Beara Peninsula died of hypothermia after having slipped outside his house and he wasn’t discovered for several days!
“This is shocking treatment of people who worked through the tough times, paying their taxes and raising their families. These are the human stories behind the Government’s gloating about being on target with their budget cuts and austerity measures to appease their cronies in Europe.”
Speaking to An Phoblacht, Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh said that the position of rural communities is clear.
“The Government needs to realise that people in rural areas have the same rights to public transport services as those living in urban areas. These people should not be targeted to appease the EU and the IMF.”