Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 June 2023
107. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will set out the data sets she receives from the National Transport Agency’s ITS number; the number of official complaints she has received in respect of the collection of data from the NTA regarding the free travel scheme her Department provides; and the amount in reimbursements made to the NTA and or transport providers in the past two years to date. [31649/23]
View answerThe Free Travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. These include road, rail and ferry services provided by, for example, Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann, Luas, Local Link and services provided by over 80 private transport operators.
At the end of May 2023, there are nearly 1.07 million Free Travel primary recipients. When spouse and companion passes are taken into account, a total of 1.75 million people benefit from the Free Travel scheme.
Since May 2020, my Department receives monthly, summary-only data from the National Transport Authority (NTA) in relation to Free Travel usage. The data contains only information on the number of journeys undertaken by Free Travel cardholders by card type (single or spouse or companion card). The data does not include any Integrated Ticketing System (ITS) numbers and cannot be used to identify individual Free Travel cardholders or journeys any individual has undertaken.
The four categories of summary data received from the NTA are:
|
Category |
Category Description |
|
Operator |
Name of the transport operator (on which the FT card was used) |
|
Event-Type |
e.g. Tag-On or Tag-Off |
|
Description |
Type of Free Travel card journey – Single, Spouse or Companion Card |
|
Usage-Vol |
Number of free travel journeys |
According to my Department’s records, one official complaint was received regarding the collection of data from the NTA in relation to the Free Travel scheme.
The table below outlines payments made to the NTA and other transport operators for the years 2021 and 2022.
Payments to NTA and other transport operators
|
|
2022 |
2021 |
|
NTA |
€4,081,494.08 |
€5,225,449.08 |
|
Other transport operators |
€85,487,168.72 |
€86,036,987.30 |
|
Total |
€89,568,662.80 |
€91,262,436.38 |
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
