A new rural night-time bus service, which some media outlets have nicknamed 'booze buses', will be hitting roads around the country on a trial basis within the next few months.
Éamon Ó Cuív, Minister for Community, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs, announced the service today in Athenry and called the 'booze buses' nickname 'a derisory term'.
He notes that the service is not just for those headed to and from the pub.
'You would have buses that would bring people to Mass on a Saturday evening, bring young people to youth clubs which is now a major challenge in most rural communities,' Minister Ó Cuív added.
'You could bring people to bingo and to all of the social services in Ireland.'
The night-time rural transport scheme would operate in four or five areas on a pilot basis for one year at a cost of €500,000.
The minister told a rural development conference that 23 of 34 rural communities which were surveyed had expressed an interest in having a night-time service provided.
He said the new service would tackle social isolation in rural areas and be welcomed by many people in years to come.
Delegates at the conference said it would go a small way towards redressing the social imbalances that existed between rural and urban Ireland.
One of the communities that will be seeking the service is Duhallow in Co Cork.
The secretary of the local IRD group there, Maura Walsh, said it would be an enormous benefit to isolated rural communities and should not be dismissed as a bus service to take alcoholics or near-alcoholics to the local pub.
