Rural households hit by lack of public transport

OVER half of all households in rural Ireland have difficulty in accessing public transport and significant problems also in accessing banks, post offices and groceries.

According to the latest survey on income and living conditions issued by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for 2007, just over half of all households in rural areas reported difficulty in accessing public transport, compared with just 11% in urban regions.

One-third of rural households expressed difficulty in accessing banking services and doctors, compared with 15% and 11% respectively of their urban counterparts.

Access to public transport, banking and GPs was “particularly diverse between rural and urban areas” according to the study.

Across the country, the majority of households (61%) reported having satisfactory access to basic needs and services, while afurther 25% reported having difficulty in accessing one or two of them.

Difficulty in accessing public transport was the most frequently reported difficulty, being reported by more than one-quarter (28%) of all responding households.

This was followed by difficulty in accessing banking services (22%). The least reported service was access to a grocery with 12% of households stating they had trouble accessing this service.

Fine Gael spokesman on rural affairs Michael Ring said the statistics showed the need to retain the rural transport scheme as the survey highlighted rural people consistently experience greater difficulty accessing basic services.

“Surely the Government can see that they should leave rural people the one small lifeline they have and not impose further cuts on rural transport.“While the country’s economic situation is painfully obvious to all, there is no doubt this survey is showing that this is a service which needs to be expanded, not reduced,” he said.

From a regional perspective, the Dublin area reported much lower rates of difficulty in accessing various basic services than other regions.

In particular, only 6% of households in Dublin said they had difficulty in accessing public transport compared with to 44% of households in the border region, 39% of households in the midland and south-east regions and 34% of households in the west.

According to the survey, households where the head of the house was in the 55-64 and 65 plus age groups had greater trouble accessing services than households where the head of the household was in a younger age group.

Also, households reporting difficulties in relation to each service were shown to have at risk of poverty and consistent poverty rates greater than other households.

The CSO study also looked at the overall satisfaction Irish people have with their dwelling.

The survey found that, overall, 17% of households reported dissatisfaction with their home.

The highest levels of dissatisfaction were reported by households renting at below the market rate (29%), households on lower incomes and by households in the border, midland and west regions (all 20% or higher).