Even Government is getting into festive spirit with rural bus plan
SLASH the social welfare. Halve the Christmas bonus. Cancel the throwaway Budget. So (never) said any Irish Government minister. The latest crop of smooth talking ministers know a juicy, free range voter when they see one, so they won’t overdo it with giveaways. They just keeping basting Joe Public, priming voters for the next election, which could well be anytime next year.
Last week our pensioners received a well deserved bonus (at 85 per cent of their pension), effectively giving them some leeway in the costly run up to Christmas and winter period. For far too long, pensioners - most of whom have worked all their lives - have had to endure second class citizen status, most notably in rural areas, where it seemed a deliberate ‘let’s keep things as they were for the tourists’ policy was adopted by previous governments.
Meanwhile the population of villages became decimated with young people moving to urban centres. Where once there were several GAA teams in an area now management teams scramble to put together a single team. I was watching an old Nationwide programme from 1982 recently, describing how people in rural parts of the country were denied access to the national bus service and had to rely on lifts to get to hospital appointments, to supermarkets and to towns. For many, little has changed and rural isolation has gotten worse, not better. The drink driving legislation - which I totally agree with - means people take the chance far less often. This has undoubtedly affected business in rural pubs, but has simultaneously saved lives, both of the drivers and of people they came across on their way home after a few jars.
A collective careless mentality, where responsibility is diluted away, saw many run the risk, without thinking of the consequences. People still get caught drink driving (six in my area over a week recently) and they pay a big price, (a fine and up to four years off the road), but this is really a small price to pay compared to what they could be facing into.
Elderly people deserve comfort, companionship and a quality of life as they enter their later years.
A new Fine Gael proposal for increased bus services to help tackle rural isolation must therefore be welcomed. The idea is to extend public transport in rural areas to times where it isn’t currently available, for example the evenings. Wexford Minister Paul Kehoe said: ‘An extension of the bus services into the evening could be particularly useful for people living alone. This idea would need to be piloted in the first instance.’
Working in conjunction with the local link companies, 38 routes have been proposed for a pilot scheme. It comes as Minister Shane Ross has proposed a bill that will see people automatically disqualified from driving if caught over the alcohol limit.
Many pub owners have put their shoulder to the wheel and bring their customers home, extending their work day by over an hour - and for this they are to be commended. One such pub, The Kings Bay Inn in Arthurstown, County Wexford, held a festive day for the community on Sunday to mark the venue’s reopening. Young and elderly joined in for a fantastic, free day celebrating the old Christmas traditions. There is great work going on in local communities where people look after each other, but the Government needs to keep putting their shoulders to the wheel also.