Thank you for inviting us today. We have already circulated committee members with our document Strengthening Connections in Rural Ireland, which explains the restructuring, as well as a questions and answers document. I will focus on some of the key points in that document to allow more time for committee to ask questions.
It is best to look back at the early stages of the programme. The rural transport programme was launched in 2007 but was built on an initiative that started in 2002. That had been established to meet the patently unmet transport demands in rural Ireland from a social inclusion and community-based perspective. The rural transport programme to date has had a focus on rural isolation and enhancing the mobility, accessibility and community participation of local people, especially those at risk of social exclusion. While the services are open to the public, older people and people with disabilities have formed the main customer base of the programme to date.
The programme operates through 35 rural transport programme groups covering the country, which are managed in the main by voluntary committees, with subsidy funding to the groups provided now by the National Transport Authority. The individual groups are responsible for identifying the specific services to be provided locally.
There has been a great success and growth of the programme. The level of services has increased rapidly over the years, going from 40,000 services in 2003 to more than 217,000 services in 2012. The number of passenger journeys recorded has increased from 171,000 in 2003 to 1.73 million in 2012. Funding for the pilot transport initiative and its successor, the rural transport programme, has increased from €3 million in 2003 to €11 million in 2010. However, in common with many other Government-supported services, funding levels have fallen back in recent years as a result of the pressure on public finances. We have seen this in all public transport subsidy areas.
A value-for-money review was commissioned by the Government in 2007. It examined the period from 2002 to 2009 and specifically focused on the period after 2007 when the programme was mainstreamed. When it was published in early 2012 the review raised concerns about the overall value for money of the programme and the cost of the organisational structures. In 2009 some 22% of total group expenditure went on administration. In addition, there was inconsistency in fare levels throughout the country, inconsistency in the cost per service throughout the country and an absence of data to measure the benefits or positive impacts of the schemes, as well as a range of other issues.
In January 2012 the Government decided to give the National Transport Authority responsibility for integrating local and rural transport and for the rural transport programme as well. We took over that function on 1 April 2012 and we have been working on the details of the plan since that time to improve integration. Ms Graham chairs the national committee which involves all the stakeholders, including the HSE and other bodies, and is working to examine the findings of the value-for-money review to see whether we could restructure the programme. Our plans for restructuring were launched on 9 July by the Minister of State with responsibility for public and community transport, Deputy Alan Kelly. As a result of this restructuring we believe that rural transport services will be better protected through lower administration costs and will be more closely woven into local authority transport planning and our mainstream national transport provision. There will be no reduction in transport services offered locally as a consequence of the restructuring. In fact, users will benefit from better integration with other State-funded and licensed transport services, all of which are under our remit.
What is in the new plan? The key element relates to the new administrative structures. We will establish 18 transport co-ordination units. They will be grant-aided by the authority and will work with the NTA and the local authorities to provide a co-ordinated response to local transport needs. These units will retain much of the experience and local links and knowledge of the current service providers and only the existing rural transport programme groups can apply to form the new units. The voluntary boards will remain part of the new structures. The administrative savings achieved by this will protect the services provided to the end user.