To ask the Minister for Regional Development to detail (i) the money from his Department which was set aside for the Rural Transport Fund (RTF) in 2013/2014; (ii) the amount received by the RTF, including money from monitoring rounds; (iii) the amount of allocated funding for 2015/2016; and (iii) whether this amount represents a 33 per cent reduction.

In 2013/14 the baseline budget for Rural Community Transport was £2.75m.

In 2013/14 the total amount of grant paid was the baseline budget of £2.75m. Following internal reallocations linked to monitoring rounds, a further £680,000 was awarded giving total for the year of £3.437m.

For 2015/16 the level of funding available is £2.43m and this is before any monitoring rounds.

The level of funding available for 2015/16 represents an 11% reduction in budget against the previous year’s baseline.