Rural bus service a lifeline for older people
By Mary O’connor
A local TD is appealing to the Government not to abandon the vital rural transport scheme which is a lifeline to many older people.
Deputy Paul Connaughton, the vice chairperson of the Oireachtas Transport Committee, says he is “inundated” with letters from concerned people all over the county.
“These elderly people would greatly miss the weekly trip on the rural bus as in most cases such people have no other means of getting out of their homes as many of them live alone. Others may have relatives who are working, and on an old age pension there isn’t enough money to pay for taxis.”
The Fine Gael TD has arranged for a deputation from the National Rural Transport Initiative Committee to address the transport committee on October 7 in Dail Eireann.
“It is ironic in Co Galway that the vast proportion of the county which never had a rural transport scheme got organised only last April. Many elderly people were very impressed with the limited but hugely useful weekly trips on this bus which allowed them to collect their pension, do a bit of shopping and have a cup of tea with people they had not met for months before that.
“I hope the Government will not abandon the principle of this vital rural scheme and I expect the transport committee will be very interested in what the members of the rural transport initiative scheme will have to say.”