Fermanagh Community Transport’s (FCT) service will continue for the foreseeable future in what is being described as a “bittersweet result” by the service’s manager, Jason Donaghy.

Discussing with The Impartial Reporter how the latest development from the Department for Infrastructure’s (DfI) final budget allocations will impact FCT, Jason said: “The DfI Permanent Secretary [Julie Harrison] feels that community transport isn’t one of those areas that would be in their power to cut.

“The position that we are facing from August is that we will receive 95 per cent of our funding from the DfI, and we are receiving a 5 per cent cut.

“It sounds like a win, but it is not. We have to temper that with the fact our funding’s been cut by more than 40 per cent from 2016, and it is not keeping pace with what is happening in Fermanagh.”

Hitting out at the impact of the lack of certainty for members, Jason said: “We recognise the difficulties the DfI are facing, but our rural, elderly, disabled people who rely on the service – and for those particular groups to have been put through what they have been put through in the past number of months – has been quite frankly disgusting.”

He added: “The people who really need the service are facing a cut, and the service comes down to [the importance of] living independently, and their quality of life.

“These aren’t luxuries – they are the absolute necessities and basics of life.”

Throughout media coverage of the funding difficulties faced by rural transport providers, Jason has emphasised that Fermanagh is a rural community.

He said: “Some 40 per cent of the population in Northern Ireland are based in rural areas, but in Fermanagh, it’s 75 per cent.

“We are hit harder because we have the lowest population density [in the UK] outside the Highlands and islands of Scotland.”

He added: “Rural [areas are] being neglected, when they talk about equality. Equality does not necessary mean the same things in different areas, but someone can have a bus 10-15 times a day in Belfast, and what we are asking for is once or twice a day in rural Fermanagh.”

Jason and all at FCT have been grateful for the support of local representatives at all levels across the political spectrum, but he said the Northern Ireland Assembly needs to be back up and running for important decision to be made.

He said: “My plea is for all elected representatives, regardless of their colour, background, interest, motivation – whatever it is – to get back into Stormont, and start making the decisions that really matter to people, in terms of the life and the people we support.

“These people [FCT users] will remain hidden and voiceless and lose years of life, and will have poorer years of life as a consequence of the whole ongoing situation [regarding funding and service cuts].”

Emphasising the key values of FCT, Jason said: “We are not about buses – we are about getting people into life.”