A nationwide rural transport scheme that has helped hundreds of thousands of people to get by bus from isolated areas to town is to be made permanent.
Since 2002, the Department of Transport has been funding the Rural Transport Initiative pilot scheme under which 34 community-led transport projects provide passenger services in rural areas of the country.
This morning, the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, said the RTI would be made a permanent fixture of Irish life by 2007.
Speaking in Kerry, Mr Cullen said half a million trips under the initiative were recorded last year.
The Rural Transport Initiative is open to all free travel-pass holders. It provides access to popular locations for some 16,000 people living in remote rural areas across Ireland.
The minister said that the future of the initiative would be formulated in consultation with local authorities, groups representing the elderly, and other interested organisations.
