Anger over rural transport cuts is just the beginning... or is it?

Many commentators have noted the swiftness and veracity with which the elderly in our society gathered together to oppose the now infamous medical card means test, included in one of Finance Minister Brian Lenihan's most recent hatchet Budgets.Thousands of angry senior citizens lined the streets of Dublin to rightly underline that they would not pay for the sins of those who have brought this country to its knees.Last Friday, in Mullingar and indeed several locations across the country, they were out in force again.This time, they took to the main thoroughfares of top Irish towns to oppose cuts to rural transport proposed in the McCarthy Report - An Bord Snip Nua's stomach-churning menu of "adjustments" to help us out of our worsening economic quandary.The proposed removal of State funding for rural transport is one of many outrageous cutbacks outlined in the McCarthy Report which, if not nipped in the bud now, may end up becoming Government policy.Rural transport schemes have served remote areas of Westmeath and beyond well over the past few years. Their function may not seem important to some - namely those who are chauffeur driven, or those who can hop on the DART for their daily speed commute from Blackrock to Dublin's city centre.But to its army of passengers in Westmeath - most of whom are over the age of 60 - the one-day-a-week bus to Mullingar has become an important feature of their social lives.For those who live in remote areas of the countryside, with little or no access to transport, the scheme brings them a great sense of independence and dignity.What's more, it allows them to link up with friends who, in the absence of other social outlets, they may never see from week to week.Many local politicians are opposed to cuts in rural transport, and before their colleagues in Dublin sign off on such a proposal, they would do well to remember the wrath of our senior citizens following the medical card debacle.Our older generations grew up in an age untouched by television, the mass media and computers, and that's possibly one reason why they know when they're being shafted.What's more, as demonstrated by last Friday's "Day of Awareness" for rural transport, they have the passion and resolve to act accordingly.If implemented, the guts of the An Bord Snip Nua report are a recipe for social and political upheaval. Yet while our senior citizens line the streets demanding justice, younger generations appear distracted and resigned.Only this week, according to the Irish Independent, Minister Martin Cullen "remained defiantly unapologetic" over his role in the €60 million electronic voting screw-up earlier this decade.As we are all too aware, this is just a taste of the brass neck attitude permeating the political establishment right now, and it's a farce that we're even discussing the future of rural transport, when left, right and centre, you find politicians coming up with the wildest of excuses for an egregious and continuing culture of entitlement.Zombie banks, big business and rogue developers are being bailed out. Public spending is slashed; jobs and homes are lost; and all while the "experts" who were blind to the gathering storm now tell us that everything is going to be fine if we just go along with all the government's proposals.Our senior citizens are aware of this. They are seething with discontent. But what of the rest of us?Younger generations, particularly those between the ages of 18 and 40, are among those who stand to lose everything from the incompetence and corruption of present-day Ireland.But for the majority of those now in their teens, twenties and early thirties, the past fifteen years were a sheltered time, where nobody knew hardship or austerity. It is the "comfort blanket" generation - mollycoddled by prosperity.Perhaps if they knew the value of Friday's rural bus to Mullingar; perhaps if they weren't driving a high-powered car, drooling over a 42" LCD television or "chillaxing" with their iPod, then there might be many more thousands on the streets marching in defence of rural transport, and much more besides.