AQO 1306/22-27 Oral question to the Minister for Infrastructure
To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to outline any plans to coordinate the public, community and medical transport sectors to improve access and connectivity.
Asked by Claire Sugden MLA on 28 November 2024
- Answered
- Oral
- Answered in the Chamber
- Tabled
- 28 November 2024
- Answer due by
- 10 December 2024
- Answered
- 10 December 202412 days after tabling
- Department
- Department for Infrastructure
- Priority question
- No
Answer
Answered in the Assembly Chamber on 10 December 2024. Extract from the Official Report (Hansard), including any supplementary questions:
Mr O'Dowd
I met Ministers Nesbitt and Muir on 9 September to discuss the cross-departmental working group on community transport, which I established in my previous time as Minister. We collectively agreed that the group will look to consider whether transport in the community can provide a more cost-effective, value-for-money service delivery model to meet the needs of users, and to investigate the potential for community transport providers to be part of a collaborative group of transport options and pathways that can be accessed by the population. My officials are preparing a new transport strategy and a new suite of transport plans that will set the framework for transport policy and investment decisions until 2035. The suite of transport plans will not consider changes to community transport operations, as those matters are being considered separately by the Department at a regional level and will be integrated into the plans as appropriate. While health and social care transport is the responsibility of the Department of Health, the transport plans will consider access, including by public transport, to the main health and social care facilities.
Ms Sugden
Thank you, Minister, for your response. I am pleased to hear that you are working with other Departments to try to coordinate a transport approach. I encourage you to look in particular at the impact on rural areas. It can take up to an hour to get from Coleraine to Castlerock on a public transport bus, whereas it takes 10 minutes in a car. If community transport can take customers to the bus stop, there are ways that we can do that better. Are there any more conversations that we can have about medical transport? I know that a lot of people are paying privately for that service, and the cost is quite significant.
Mr O'Dowd
I am happy for my Department to engage in any conversations as to how we assist the public, whether in accessing healthcare or other matters, particularly in rural communities. Many rural communities have been left behind for far too long when it comes to the provision of public transport. Even as part of the community transport review that I am carrying out, we will have to look at how we deliver that transport in a different way in order to ensure that there is equal access to services for rural communities.