Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. He is right with regard to the concessionaries. That is the rub of it. The needs of those who have met the eligibility criteria have been satisfied and they are in receipt of the waiving of fees. There has been a one third increase in concessionaries this year. The Deputy and others can raise individual cases. I am very conscious of the individual circumstances of particular families who are outside of eligibility. I refer to those who would traditionally have received concessionary tickets, but because of the increased eligibility have now missed out. I am in discussions with the Minister in the context of the budget to see if we can go a step further to look at measures for concessionaries, in particular for those who have previously been in receipt of such tickets but have not met the eligibility criteria this year, where there is capacity on transport to cater for them. Those discussions are ongoing in advance of next Tuesday. I am hopeful that we will be in position to meet that need but it is an additional need. It is additional because they did not meet the criteria in the first instance.