Total expenditure on the Free Travel Scheme amounted to £28.2 million in 1991. The cost of the scheme in 1992 is expected to be £29.6 million. The bulk of this expenditure (96.7 per cent in 1991) is made to the CIE group of companies. The balance is spread over a total of 30 private bus and ferry operators.
Payments are made to all participating operators in the Free Travel Scheme based upon surveys of passenger usage conducted by the operators themselves. The findings of these surveys are rigorously examined by the Department after which a fixed recoupment level is agreed with each individual participant. To confirm the accuracy of the payments being made, officers of my Department occasionally conduct their own surveys of passenger usage by individual bus and ferry operators.
The basis of the agreed rate of remuneration with CIE in respect of the free travel scheme was a survey of passenger usage carried out by CIE personnel on all its services during October 1974. These findings were examined and approved by my Department at that time in consultation with the Central Statistics Office and the Department of Finance. As free travel usage is restricted to off-peak times on CIE's Dublin and provincial bus services, the Department negotiated a 40 per cent discount in the total annual payment due to CIE.