Elderly may be forced to pay for transport scheme

Elderly people living in isolated areas may be forced to pay for a Government-funded transport scheme even though they are legally entitled to free travel, it has been claimed.

Former Fine Gael TD Mr Gerry Reynolds warned that the people running the "rural lift" scheme in Co Leitrim may soon have to charge passengers who avail of the service because of inadequate exchequer funding for the Rural Transport Initiative (RTI) .

The RTI operates in 34 project areas throughout the country and was designed to provide public transport in isolated or socially disadvantaged areas.

However, Leitrim TD Mr John Ellis, who is chairman of the Oireachtas Transport Committee, insisted this week that the 15 per cent increase provided for the scheme in the Budget should be adequate to maintain the existing service.

With talks due to be held in the coming days between Department of Transport officials and ADM, the agency which oversees the scheme, he said he would also be looking for answers from ADM. Deputy Ellis said he would object strongly to charges being levied on those with free travel passes.

The co-ordinator of the West Sligo Rural Transport Initiative, which currently caters for 250 passengers each week, echoed concerns about funding. Ms Camilla Smyth said that 70 per cent of those availing of the service in west Sligo were elderly. But 60 per cent of these had never used their travel passes before the RTI was established because there was public transport in the area.

Before the Budget the Rural Transport Network had lobbied hard for an extra €2m for RTI saying €5m would be needed to meet the demands of the scheme. The increase granted meant an allocation of €3.45m for this year.