Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 8 December 2004
104 Mr. Eamon Ryan asked the Minister for Transport his future development plans for the rural transport initiative bus services; the overall patronage on the bus services provided by the initiative in 2003; and the funding sources available for the continuation and development of these services. [32646/04]
View answerFollowing a full appraisal of the rural transport initiative, RTI, which was completed in July this year, I have extended the scheme for a further two years to end 2006 in line with the principal recommendation of the appraisal.
I have also announced that the 2005 allocation for the RTI will be €3.45 million, which represents an increase of 15% over the 2004 funding for the initiative or more than 12% when account is taken of inflation effects. This increase will result in an overall funding commitment of more than €12 million for the RTI to end 2005 which is all the more impressive when it is borne in mind that a total of €4.4 million was provided for it when the initiative was first proposed in the National Development Plan 2000-2006.
I understand that some 42,000 transport services were provided by the 34 RTI projects in 2003 on some 380 rural transport routes. A total of 305,000 passenger trips was recorded on these services in that year.
