The Government’s been accused of trying to completely shut down rural Ireland through plans to streamline the country’s rural transport network- which includes Clare Accessible Transport.
Under plans contained in a draft document – the coalition is proposing to scrap the current set up nationwide and replace it with just over a half a dozen authorities while cutting the numbers employed in the service by over 2 thirds.
Its lead to grave fears that the most isolated and vulnerable in Clare will effectively lose their only link to the outside world.
Alarm has been expressed in Clare communities and beyond over fresh plans to scrap Ireland’s rural transport network which Seamus Boland chief executive of Irish Rural Link believes will have devastating consequences.
Under a draft government proposal – the 35 community based companies – including Clare Accessible Transport would be abolished and replaced with eight regional authorities which would then operate under a new regime- with various county council’s responsible for the schemes.
Clare Accessible Transport currently operate 9 buses across the county – with 50 thousand passenger trips made last year and Manager Laura Ward says the service is used by a wide range of people.
She fears the plan will result in the transport network being diminished as the system will remove the community element in organising and delivering transport to the most isolated areas.
The restructuring of rural transport would see the numbers employed cut from 108 to just 32- and follows a value-for-money study that found administration costs were too high, but Ger Hoey Chairperson of Clare Accessible Transport rejects this.
A spokesperson for the Junior Transport Minister Alan Kelly insists its not about cutting back the rural network but providing a more cost efficient service .
However North Clare Fianna Fail Councillor Michael Kelly says its just another attack on rural Ireland
This the second time in recent years the future of Clare Accessible Transport has come under threat – in 2009 hundreds took to the streets of Ennis in protest at a proposal by An Bord Snip to abolish the service.
East Clare Fine Gael Councillor Joe Cooney says he will be pressing his senior party colleagues in government to ensure that the existing network in the county is maintained
