Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 July 2016
109. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will extend the free travel scheme for persons who are eligible to cover travel on Nitelink bus services in County Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21706/16]
View answerThe free travel scheme is available to people aged over 66 years, to carers and to people in receipt of certain disability type payments. There are currently some 850,000 customers who benefit from the scheme, which has an annual allocation of €80 million. The scheme permits travel for free on most CIE public transport services, Luas and some 80 private operators.
The free travel scheme was introduced to promote social inclusion and prevent the isolation of elderly and disabled people by allowing them use public transport services at no charge to themselves, with the service providers receiving payments from my Department instead. The scheme was never intended to cover the cost of premium services such as the Nitelink and Airlink. Expanding it to those services would require an increase in the payments made to participating providers.
Therefore any decision to extend the scheme to allow people to use their free travel pass on special services such as the Nitelink would have budgetary consequences and would have to be considered in the context of budget negotiations.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
