Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 April 2022
103. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Education if her Department is in a position to open up a more flexible taxsaver scheme with regard to teachers that are either moving jobs for new academic years or are substitute teachers and may only need public transport for certain blocks in a calendar year; if such a scheme can be considered; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18506/22]
View answerI am glad to advise the Deputy that a travel pass scheme is available to nearly 80,000 contracted teaching and non-teaching school staff paid by my Department.
The terms of the travel pass scheme operated by my Department are laid out in Departmental Circular 56/2020. A policy decision was made when the scheme was introduced to facilitate the Taxsaver tickets on a yearly basis through my Department’s payrolls. The rationale for this, is the considerable administrative burden involved administering the scheme on a monthly basis, especially given the size of the teaching and non-teaching staff payrolls operated by the Department.
