Rural Transport Network Update Thursday 10th January 2013
A Chara,
I am writing to you to give a quick update of the work of the network and the programme as a whole.
1. Minister Alan Kelly
A letter has been sent to Minister Kelly requesting a meeting. To date no response has been received.If a response is not received by Monday Kevin will make contact with the Minister’s office.
2. National Transport Authority
A letter has been sent to Gerry Murphy requesting a meeting. To date no response has been received.If a response is not received by Monday Kevin will make contact with the National Transport Authority office.
3.2013 Contracts
As companies are awarePobal have issued 6 month contracts to 30th June 2013 together with 6 month allocations for us all. Theses allocations, from discussion with 6 companies, seem to be a 6.95% reduction across the board.
The executive would urge all RTP companies to use all their contacts at political and local authority level to bring pressure on the minister to clarify the future of the programme.
4. Staff Update
a)Staff update for the Network
KCT held interviews for staff through the Rural Social Scheme and Tus but there were no participants suitable for the position.
KCT are currently awaiting confirmation as to whether KCT can apply for workers on the WPP and Job Bridge schemes for participants to cover the period up to 30th June 2013.
b)Staff Redundancy query – following a request at our December Executive I made a query to Padraig in Pobal re redundancy. Also attached to the email is a file entitled “Financial Closure Guidelines” document as received from Pobal. I received this after requesting the information from Pobal – there is no indication that this will be required by Companies.
Padraig O’ Ruairc - “Apologies for the delay in responding firstly attached is the guidelines in CSP for redundancies.”
“I have been advised by the NTA that no decision has been made on a redundancy policy at the moment. Such a policy will be developed once the restructuring is approved and commences and it is deemed necessary to develop such a policy.” – Padraig O’ Ruairc
Section from Finance Closure Guidelines for Community Services Programme on
Redundancy payments
The Department of Social Protection has agreed to contribute to the redundancy costs related to CSP funded employees where these redundancies are incurred as a result of reducing CSP funding. This contribution will amount to40% of the statutoryredundancy payment based on theCSP contribution to manager’s and FTE workers’ wagesexcluding employers PRSI.
A rebate of 60% is claimable from the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment and this will cover the balance of the statutory redundancy payment. If an employee is made redundant and is subsequently re-employed in their old job in a sister/parent company of the old CSP Company then this individual is not entitled to a redundancy payment. If you are implementing redundancies, please include as part of your Final return a copy of the signed redundancy claims as sent to the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment.
Pobal recommends the use of the on-line redundancy calculator and the submission of redundancy claims on-line to the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment site
5. Communication with RTN Members
a)Minutes and Notes from recent meetings
On 19th December I emailed out the following documents;
- DRAFT AGM Minutes 21st November - these will remain as draft minutes until the next AGM
- Notes from Old and New Executive 21st November 2012
- DRAFT Minutes of the Executive Meeting held on Thursday 13th December 2012 - these will remain AS draft minutes until the next Executive meeting
- Fitzpatrick Associates Report - DRAFT 3 - it was agreed to send this document out as it is.
These items were also placed on the RTN Website ( in the meetings section of the members log in. If you are having difficulty logging in to the members section or require a new password please contact me.
b)Contact Details of Members & Companies
On 20th December i sent an individual email to all companiesattaching the details that the Network has on file for each company to review it and come back to let me know that it's correct or send on the changes that needed to be made. To date only 14 companies have responded.
It is imperative that all members respond so that all members receive the emails and texts that are being sent by the Network.
- Next Meeting of Executive
The next Meeting of the Executive has been arranged for Thursday 24th January 2013 in Offaly Local Development Offices at 11am.
Could all members come back to me with items they wish the Executive to include on the Agenda.
Kind regards,
Alan O’ Connell,
Secretary,
Rural Transport Network
087 9662948