In a brief statement this evening Deputy Tom Fleming, Independent and Deputy Brendan Griffin, Fine Gael said that they have requested at a private session of the Dáil Joint Committee for Transport and Communications, on Wednesday, October 28th that the National Transport Association would attend a meeting of the joint committee in relation to funding for community transport such as the Kerry Flyer. Kerry Flyer is a charitable company and it tenders for school bus contracts at the expense of the small private bus operators. It was agreed by members of the committee and the meeting will take place in the Dáil at 2.30pm on Thursday, November 5th.
Last July Deputy Michael Healy Rae also got involved in this debate and he felt then that local transport operators providing school collections and connectivity services to communities across Kerry may soon face extinction as the tendering of the
Kerry Flyer allows the state-sponsored service to acquire transport contracts from hard-working operators at a far lower cost.
“Many of these local transport providers have been operational in their communities for a number of decades and are concerned that the bus and taxi services that they offer will cease to exist within twelve months. Parents of school children availing of the services provided by local operators are concerned that the disruption to the transport routine, with the removal of the personal, comfortable nature of private operators, will be damaging to vulnerable children and commuters with learning difficulties,” he said.
