Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 June 2019
766. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government his role in the funding and issuing of free Leap cards for homeless families; the estimated cost of providing free cards to families in emergency accommodation outside of school term time; and if free cards for homeless families will be extended to include non-term time. [26765/19]
View answerUnder Rebuilding Ireland, my Department is funding an initiative to provide homeless families residing in temporary emergency accommodation in the Dublin Region with access to free public transport for essential school journeys. The Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) oversees the implementation of this initiative and, working in partnership with the National Transport Authority, has put arrangements in place for the provision of Leap cards to the families concerned. These Leap cards provide for free public transport for school-going children and accompanying adults, where necessary. The cards are distributed through the Family Homeless Action Teams, which are also funded by the DRHE.
As the Leap cards were introduced to support essential school journeys, there are no plans to extend the provision of the cards outside of the school term. However, Transport for Ireland will be running a ‘Kids go Free’ programme during July 2019, where child Leap card holders can travel for free on Leap card enabled services from 1-28 July. In addition, the Community Welfare Service of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection may consider, on a case-by-case basis, the needs of an individual household in respect of exceptional transport costs.
