Independent TD Carol Nolan has said that a set of proposals on reducing car usage are “deluded” and “bear no relation to life in rural Ireland”.
The Laois-Offaly deputy was speaking about a memo that leader of the Green Party and transport minister Eamon Ryan is set to bring to Cabinet today (Tuesday, March 7), which will recommend a number of measures on limiting the use of private cars.
The memo outlines a number of measures including a significant increase in congestion charges, a reduction in national road speed limits and cuts in public transport fares.
However, Deputy Nolan has said these “are just the latest in a long litany of deluded and detached policy initiatives that bear no relation to life in rural Ireland or the wishes of the people”.
She said that rural Ireland has been calling for greater levels of reginal and local transport “since Moses was a baby”, but that these communities repeatedly see “the vast majority” of capital expenditure directed towards light rail systems in Dublin.
“Meanwhile rural councils and local authorities struggle to achieve the required funding for road repairs, never mind new roads such as the Mountmellick bypass.
“There are many people in rural Ireland who have just had enough of the Greens and their incessant demand that rural life and rural transport needs should reflect a bewilderingly detached Green Party vision of how they should get around, how they should work, and how they should travel,” she added.
The deputy also stated that the government’s perception that a small number of vehicles could suffice in rural Ireland is “utterly patronising” and said that “it must stop”.
“It is time the adults took charge of transport policy in this country.
“We cannot go on trying to reconfigure travel options that are disproportionately punitive to people in rural Ireland; people who need their car and will go on needing their cars for many years to come,” Deputy Nolan concluded.
Rural hackney programme
In an attempt to increase the transport options available to people living in rural areas, the Minister for Transport launched the Local Hackney Pilot Programme back in January.
The government-backed programme, which will run for one year initially, aims to attract new, part-time hackney services to run in communities which cannot support a full-time taxi operation.
Drivers taking part in the programme who are licensed and Garda vetted, may be able to receive up to €6,000 to subsidise ordinary fares and support the provision of the service.
The programme is currently operating in 21 rural areas from Donegal to Cork until the end of 2023, when it will be revised, and may be rolled out further.
Speaking about the programme at the time, Minister Ryan stated that he hopes it will improve transport options “not just in towns but in the areas around them where so many people live”.