Transport scheme provides a valuable lifeline for older people living in isolation
Hidden among the myriad of proposals forwarded in the An Bord Snip Nua report in 2009, was one to discontinue the Rural Transport Programme (RTP). The savings were relatively small, about €11 million.
For thousands at the sharp end of isolation, the recommendation fitted the template of knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
Since its inception, the RTP has acted as a valuable service for some, a vital one for others, and a lifeline for plenty.
Economist Colm McCarthy and his colleagues laid out the proposal in these terms.
“Given the availability of private sector bus alternatives, the high level of car ownership and the under-utilisation of synergies with other publicly funded local transport services, support the view that the level of direct exchequer assistance can and should be eliminated, particularly in light of current budgetary circumstances, this programme should be ended.”
And so the programme was up for grabs in the great austerity plan. While some in rural Ireland saw the Snip report as a threat, others saw an opportunity.
“In my opinion, the McCarthy Report was probably the best thing that happened the RTP network,” says its PRO, Alan Kerry.
“It gave us a national identity. Before that, most people didn’t know exactly what was involved in it. Afterwards they did, to the point that McCarthy has turned out to be one of the strongest promotional tools for rural transport.”
A few months after the July 2009 publication of the report, Kerry and his colleagues set about enlightening the political classes by setting up a Day of Awareness. Every TD and senator was offered a free ticket for one of the programme’s modes of transport. Since then, the RTP is no longer recognised as a handy goodie to be throwing at a constituency, but a vital service.
On one level, it’s not about transport so much as contact.
Kerry recalls a recent incident in his own Kildare/Offaly Community Transport Group. A 76-year-old passenger who lives alone had been a regular since the initiative started in 2002. Last week, she wasn’t waiting for the bus. The driver noticed that her dogs were nowhere to be seen despite the late morning hour. He looked around the back of the house to see her delivered milk had not been taken in. He immediately rang the gardaí.
She had been dead for two days, her demise attributed to natural causes.
“How long would she have been there if the bus wasn’t calling?” Kerry asks.
“With our guys, if somebody isn’t there, word is passed back and somebody can phone.
“If you look at it in the most basic economic terms, it helps hugely with independent living for a lot of people. How much would the cost be for residential care?”
The RTP was born out of an initiative introduced on a pilot basis in 2002. The idea was to provide access to those who were not being properly serviced by the public transport system, and who, in most cases, simply couldn’t afford private transport.
In 2006, the initiative was put on a more secure basis and extended to 36 separate companies around the state, all of which act autonomously. Since it was set up it had undertaken over seven million passenger journeys.
Figures for last year show that 56% of passengers in 1.4m journeys were over 65. The gender profile breaks down 2:1 in favour of women.
Locally, groups set up their own companies, sometimes in partnership with other associations.
One typical journey would be to collect elderly people in outlying areas on a Friday morning to bring them to the nearest town to collect their pension. Another would be to organise for transport for schoolchildren in rural areas to attend a swimming pool.
“A huge amount of the requests for provision are for basic grocery shopping and visiting the hospital,” says Kerry.
Regular routes are mapped out and scheduled according to needs. Provision is also usually made for specialised trips, particularly when it involves elderly people attending to specific medical needs.
The majority of contractors provide 12 to 16-seater vehicles, but, when necessary, taxis are employed, and there are also volunteers who provide their own transport. About 80% of the contractors are local.
The programme provides an opportunity for pensioners to avail of their free travel pass. Those who have not yet reached that mature station in life are liable for a small fare, which varies from group to group.
The free travel pass allocation is a bugbear of the programme’s advocates. Last year, the allocation was worth €73m, of which just €1.5m went to rural transport, despite the huge number of pensioners availing of the scheme.
The companies come in all shapes and sizes. North Cork has its own DART — the Duhallow Area Rural Transport.
“It’s much more than transport,” says DART chairman Jack Roche.
“It’s door to door, and the drivers will help to unload shopping, take it into the home, whatever the needs are. And it’s also social. Some of the people who use the transport won’t see anybody else for days on end.
“Getting on the bus and joining others is a social outing in itself.”
None of this can be filed down to base economic terms. But in a time of living austerely, the future for the RTP is up for grabs. The programme is under review.
Since the publication of the Bord Snip Nua report, the political classes have woken up to the value of the RTP, and have reacted to lobbying. Fine Gael TDs Damien English, Frank Feighan and Michael Ring were vocal in decrying any attempt to do away with the scheme. Whether their resolve holds firm in the face of the upcoming cuts remains to be seen.
Alan Kerry says the network is a first line of defence in the perennial battle against rural isolation.
“You actually feel as if you’re making a difference,” he says.
