I welcome the opportunity to update the joint committee on recent developments in rural transport, in addition to reviewing the two reports it is examining, the report on the value for money and policy review of rural transport and the report on the external review of the local integrated transport services pilot project. The Chairman has introduced my colleagues from the National Transport Authority and Pobal.
The rural transport programme, RTP, developed from the rural transport initiative of 2002, a pilot project established to address issues of unmet transport needs from a social inclusion and community based perspective. The rural transport programme was launched in 2007 to build on the success of that initiative, with a specific focus on responding to rural isolation and enhancing the mobility, accessibility and community participation of local people, particularly those at risk of social exclusion. While services are open to the general public, older people and people with disabilities have, to date, formed the core customer base of the programme which is administered by Pobal. A total of 35 groups, managed, in the main, by voluntary management committees, are being funded under the programme, for which a budget of €9.77 million has been provided this year.
The committee will be aware that on 28 February the Minister of State, Deputy Alan Kelly, announced new plans to integrate rural transport services. The new plans which were approved by the Government stemmed from a review of RTP developments in recent years and consideration of the reports being examined. There are two key changes. First, the National Transport Authority has been allocated national responsibility for implementation of the integrated local and rural transport programme, including the rural transport programme. This has the effect of placing all State funded local and rural public transport services in a broader transport context. This new role for the authority, coupled with its existing national remit for securing the provision of public passenger transport services, will enable the development of better links between local and rural transport services and scheduled bus and rail services, which is fundamental to a fully integrated transport network. The authority assumed its new role from 1 April. This role also includes managing the rural transport budget provided by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and administered by Pobal.
The second key change is the establishment of a new national integrated rural transport committee chaired by the National Transport Authority which will oversee the future integration of local and rural transport services. The membership of the committee is drawn from organisations representing key stakeholders, including rural transport groups, Bus Éireann, the Health Service Executive, Pobal and local authorities, as well as policymakers from the relevant Departments. The role of the committee is to oversee and manage a partnership approach to implementing integrated local and rural transport services to achieve greater synergies, better meet identified transport needs and deliver increased value for money for the Exchequer. The committee has had two meetings to date, the latest last Friday. These developments, including the role of the authority and the new committee, are broadly in line with the recommendations made in the value for money and local integrated transport services, LITS, reports.
One of the key initiatives arising from the Government's decision and which will be overseen by the new committee is the identification and selection of a number of model areas where a partnership approach to integrated transport will be implemented at local level. Targeting carefully selected model areas will allow incremental provision of tested delivery structures for integrated local and rural transport services across the country. It will also facilitate an evidence-based approach, whereby data collection and analysis for the selected model areas can be carried out. The pilot projects will test the way integrated local and rural transport services can best operate and how savings can be achieved across the various transport services. The outcome of the pilot projects will inform the wider national roll-out of integrated rural transport services. The National Transport Authroity is developing proposals for these areas in conjunction with the committee. These proposals will be submitted to the Minister of State for approval shortly.
At its meeting last Friday the committee decided, in advance of the setting up of these model areas, to have four subgroups to examine key issues relating to school transport, health services, logistics and overall administration of the group. The groups will report quickly and feed into the model areas. The overall objective of the new proposals and model projects is to eliminate crossover and the duplication of services and create a better service for the public.
Over €200 million a year is spent across various State bodies on transport services in rural areas between the rural transport programme, school transport and HSE non-acute transport services, with little or no official co-ordination among them. It is, therefore, essential that policy areas relating to school and health services and transport services integration are dealt with as part of the work of the committee. While there are challenges and complexities, the National Transport Authority and the new committee are, essentially, tasked with identifying the optimum way to deliver a strong, co-ordinated service that provides good value for money for the taxpayer. It is hoped significant progress can be made in this work by year end.
I will now refer specifically to the two reports. Members will have received some briefing material which includes background information on the reports and summarises the recommendations made.
The value for money report was carried out in the context of the Government-wide framework for evaluation of public expenditure programmes as part of the value for money and public review initiative. The key findings are: there are concerns about the value for money delivered by the programme in the context of the rate of increased funding without an accompanying equivalent increase in passenger numbers or services in the period between 2004 and 2009; the current organisational structure for the programme which covers 35 groups is a key factor in the lack of cost efficiencies being achieved in terms of both administration and operations; the cost of administration of the groups is very high as a proportion of total group expenditure, with wide variance in administration costs across the groups; there were substantial increases in operating costs, with wages and salaries of RTP groups doubling as a consequence of increased staff numbers and salary levels between 2007 and 2009; there is no formal reporting of the different forms of income the groups received from various sources, including State funding, fare income from individuals or contracted activities; there is a lack of data available to measure the benefits of the programme in addressing social exclusion objectives and there are data gaps in the programme's framework for performance monitoring and evaluation; and the number of journeys provided for under the discretionary free travel scheme increased on an annual basis between 2004 and 2009.
The value for money report makes a broad recommendation in favour of the continuation of the programme, subject to a number of issues being addressed. Its recommendations to address these issues include measures to provide clear evidence of programme effectiveness; achievement of efficiencies and reductions in programme costs; restructuring of RTP groups, with greater use of shared services and standardisation of practices and fare policy; implementation of a programme monitoring framework; and a record and reporting framework to be established that will provide an up-to-date measure of transport provision and unmet transport needs in rural areas.
As well as having responsibility for management of the rural transport programme, the National Transport Authority has also been tasked with overseeing implementation of the recommendations made in the value for money, VFM, report. The authority is best positioned to address the report's recommendations in the wider transport context, addressing such issues as enhanced co-ordination of transport services, elimination of services duplication and better targeting of those with greatest need.
While the recommendations made in the VFM report were only agreed as part of the Government's decision in January and the report was published in March, a number of the recommendations are being progressed, while a plan for prioritising the implementation of other recommendations is being put in place by the National Transport Authority and supported, where required, by Pobal and the Department. The main recommendations progressed are set out in the background material provided for the committee. In summary, progress is being made in reducing administration costs. Furthermore, the practice of providing discretionary free travel has been discontinued, which is a substantial saving to the programme.
The local integrated transport services, LITS, report is an evaluation by outside consultants of a number of pilot projects undertaken in the north east and north west to explore the potential for improved synergies between existing transport providers with a view to realising better value for money. The pilot projects evaluated included collect and connect services, hospital feeder services, co-ordination of disability services, ticketing and integration, co-ordinated information provision and journey planning, and increased synchronisation of partner systems and processes. The primary recommendation of the report is that the LITS approach should continue and be developed nationally, subject to the further recommendations included in the report. These additional recommendations refer primarily to the need for a central steering committee and a central role for the National Transport Authority. These are reflected in the proposals approved by the Government in January. The work of the national integrated rural transport committee will bring a more coherent national focus to the integration process which commenced under the local integrated transport services initiative.
I emphasise that the Minister and the Department are highly conscious of the good work undertaken to date by many groups and the progress made. It is intended to ensure this work is built on and that the experience gained to date guides the work of the new committee. The National Transport Authority and Pobal will play a key role in linking with all groups to advance the outcome of the pilot schemes and ensure local groups continue to drive efficiencies and integration to neutralise the impact of reduced funding on direct service delivery. It is the aim that under the umbrella of the new national committee, a more complete and cost effective public transport service offering can be achieved in local and rural areas which will better meet the transport demands of all users.