Driving rural lifeline off the road

Reports last week that the Rural Transport Programme has been given a reprieve in the revised Programme for Government are greatly exaggerated, say campaigners. Marese McDonaghinvestigates

MARY LYNCH has spent over 40 years looking out her front door at the Ox mountains in Co Sligo, but for some time now she hasn’t been able to see the view.

A condition known as macular degeneration has damaged her eyesight to such a degree that she can no longer read or do her beloved crossword puzzles, and she can read her post only with the aid of a powerful magnifying glass.

The main Ballina/Sligo road is just half a mile down the scenic mountain road which leads to her house, but it’s too far for Mary. “With my eyesight I can’t even cross the road safely,” she explains.

She has good reason to be afraid of the main road because more than 30 years ago her then nine-year-old son Michael suffered horrific injuries when he was knocked off his bicycle by a truck as he helped his father drive cattle there.

Now 40, Michael is intellectually disabled as a result of the accident. For mother and son, the Rural Transport Programme (RTP) has been a godsend because neither can drive due to their disabilities.

The nearest shop is four miles away. The door-to-door nature of the service is vital to them because neither could negotiate their way to the nearest public transport pick-up point.

Mary gets the bus to Sligo twice a week and is so familiar with the layout of the streets and the supermarket aisles there that she can get her business done without assistance. Her son would have no social outlet without his weekly outing to the town to play pool and meet friends, she says.

The Sligo RTP scheme is one of 37 in the State which came under the spotlight following a recommendation in the McCarthy report that the entire service be scrapped to save an estimated €11 million annually.

In the past week, Fianna Fáil TDs, who were lobbied strongly when the RTP came under threat, have been issuing statements welcoming the announcement in the new Programme for Government that it is to continue.

But campaigners have pointed out that the latest Programme for Government doesn’t even mention the RTP. Instead, it promises to “explore the provision of a full-scale transport system in rural areas using the network expertise of Bus Éireann”, as well as the “physical infrastructure and personal resources” of the school transport system.

Those who have developed a service, which involves minibuses negotiating narrow mountain roads to pick up passengers neither physically nor, in some cases, mentally equipped to access public transport, are baffled. How Bus Éireann or the school bus fleet will manage to provide the same tailormade and flexible service is beyond them.

Camilla Smyth, co-ordinator of the RTP in Sligo, says she is very concerned that the needs of their passengers will continue to be met under the new regime currently being “explored” by Government.

“Obviously, everyone welcomes the retention of the RTP, but I think much more clarity is needed,” says Smyth.

“Some of our passengers are very vulnerable, some of the people our drivers cater for never used a telephone, never went to their GPs and never used public transport until we introduced them to this scheme.”

Last week in Co Sligo, a pilot scheme began, involving a synergy between Bus Éireann and the local RTP service which requires the rural transport bus to feed the routine public transport services.

But many RTP operators are concerned that the flexibility required by their passengers will not be possible under such an arrangement.

In Co Sligo, 90 per cent of the RTP clients have free travel, but 40 per cent had never availed of it until rural transport was introduced.

When McCarthy cited the “high level of car ownership” as a basis for dropping the scheme, he was accused of having a “let them eat cake” mentality, by Seamus Boland, chief executive of Irish Rural Link.

“It was a nonsense argument,” says Boland, who is not reassured by the latest development. “This means that the scheme won’t be touched in the upcoming budget, but there is no long-term guarantee there,” he says.

“It’s still there in black and white in the McCarthy report that it should be scrapped and nothing in the Programme for Government has changed that.”

Asked about the attitude of Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey to the retention of the RTP, a department spokeswoman referred to the paragraph about rural transport in the revised Programme for Government.

Speaking on the issue in the Seanad last month, the Minister said that all decisions on the McCarthy recommendations would come before the Cabinet and he warned against making “a political football” out of the issue, saying some people were adding to the anxieties of the elderly by predicting the demise of the RTP. “If the decision is ultimately made to discontinue the service, they can then make their party political broadcasts,” said the Minister.

Laura Ward, manager of Clare Accessible Transport (CAT), is worried that after a high profile and very successful campaign to raise awareness about the importance of the RTP, people may now become complacent as a result of the latest announcement, which is being presented in some quarters as a reprieve for the RTP.

Ward is not reassured by the promise to explore the provision of full scale rural service using Bus Éireann and the school bus fleet.

“We feel threatened by the fact that the recent announcement actively does not mention the RTP,” she says. “We are concerned that those isolated and vulnerable people who have benefited from the RTP will continue to have a service.”

While half of the passengers availing of rural transport in Clare have free travel and half have a registered disability, she says the service is a classic example of social integration.

CAT makes more than 3,000 trips a month or 40,000 a year.

“Thirty per cent of our passengers are under 25 and they use the bus to go to the cinema or to college or shopping.

“We have tourists sitting alongside people who are travelling to the Brothers of Charity [workshops]. And we have people in residential care who use the bus to make visits home where they get the chance to sit in the family kitchen and have a cup of tea with their family.”

Sinead Groonell, administrator of the Sligo RTP service, points out that there are people who just cannot lift the phone and ring someone for a lift if the need arises suddenly.

“We had an elderly man last year who was due to have an operation but because he had infection the surgery was postponed. He ended up getting a lift home from the hospital in a hearse.

“The existing service is very tailored and some of those using it are very vulnerable,” she explains.

“The drivers pick them up at the door, they meet them in the car park in town and carry their shopping onto the bus, and they wait at the house until they see the lights go on and know the person is safe. Who else is going to do that?”

Groonell also disputes the €11 million price tag put on the RTP in the McCarthy report.

“In 2008, the 37 schemes cost €8.3 million and carried 1.2 million passengers which works out at €6.92 a trip,” she says.

“It is a service which enables vulnerable people to remain living at home.”

If the service goes, some won’t be able to live in their own homes and some of those who do will experience depression because of social isolation, Groonell predicts.

Laura Ward says the scheme in Clare is now part of the fabric of the community.

“It is a lifeline for people and it gives them equality. It would be a real kick in the teeth for people if it goes,” says Ward.

‘I could not get him into a car’

Tommy Keaveney’s life changed dramatically after he broke his ankle five years ago.

According to his wife Maura, Tommy from Aughris in west Sligo, got an infection and, as a result, had his leg amputated. Once an able-bodied farmer and builder, Tommy was already suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

“We depend on the rural transport bus to get Tommy to the local health centre,” explains Maura.

“He is in a wheelchair and he weighs 20 stone, so there is no way I could help him into the car. The health centre is three miles away but even if it was only 100 yards away we need the bus to get him there.”

The nature of the service means that Tommy gets picked up at his door as do a lot of other passengers with mobility problems. “It is full of luggage – wheelchairs, walking frames, canes, the whole lot,” explains Maura.

She says she cannot imagine what life will be like for her husband, who regained some of his independence when he started to avail of the bus service.

“It brings him to the day centre twice a week where he can have a game of cards or a chat with his friends. I cannot imagine if we lose the bus what his life will be like. Most people are away working during the day, so he won’t have callers.”

Apart from the practical problems of getting to the health centre for therapy, she is worried about the isolation Tommy and others will experience if their link with society is cut.

“I can see a lot of depression around if people are left at home sitting looking at the four walls,” says Maura.