Don’t leave people in Leitrim stranded without transport, Harkin tells Taoiseach

“The Leitrim Community Car Scheme that saved the State over €111,000 in hospital and health transport is closing for want of a government subvention of €20,000,” Deputy Marian Harkin told the Taoiseach in the Dáil yesterday evening, Tuesday.

“Tomorrow the last day of the operation of the scheme run by Leitrim Volunteer Centre in Carrick-on-Shannon,” Ms Harkin said  in the Dail.

“Operated by more than 35 volunteer drivers, in the last 14 months the service has carried 533 people. Ninety per cent of the trips involve taking people to hospital appointments in Sligo, Galway, Manorhamilton, Roscommon, Dublin and elsewhere.

Ms Harkin explained that at €20,000 the amount needed to run the scheme for one year represents extraordinary value for money.

“A regular round trip taxi fare from Carrick-on-Shannon to Sligo University Hospital costs €210. At that rate the 533 trips taken by the Leitrim Community Car Scheme would have cost over €111,000, yet a fraction of that, €20,000, cannot be found and as a result the scheme ends today,” the Deputy said.

Ms Harkin explained that she has raised this issue many times with the previous Taoiseach, with Minister Heather Humphreys and with the HSE, to little avail.

Leitrim Volunteer Centre are to be applauded for their vision and for their commitment to those who are without personal transport by setting up this badly needed and widely used Community Car Scheme. So too are the volunteer drivers who give of their time and use their own vehicles, with some not taking any expenses for petrol etc.

This is such a positive community scheme and it’s a crying shame that it could not be supported by any government department or the HSE.

Calls are coming in every day from individuals, from nursing homes, from public health nurses, from Sligo University Hospital and from Leitrim County Council requesting essential transport services, and yet, from tomorrow the answer will be ‘no’ every single time.

“In that context, Taoiseach, I am asking that you either fund the current scheme or immediately put in place a pilot community car scheme similar to the one in Fingal run by Fingal County Council in partnership with the Local Link and Go Car. Don't leave those without transport in Leitrim stranded.,” Deputy Harkin concluded.