Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not accept that, because the Minister’s Department has the ability to make it a condition of providing the money to the operator for the scheme that they do not charge for a booking. As I said, booking is now not a question one's favourite seat; it is a question of getting on the particular form of public transport at all. The irony is that I do not think Iarnród Éireann charges for booking a seat online if a person has free access to travel. Yet, the bus services do. The private bus services certainly do. In certain cases, if you are travelling 20 km, 30 km or 40 km, the fee is higher than the fare would be if you just got on the bus. This is because the normal booking fee is €10. Some of these are not long-distance, cross-country services. They are shorter services. They are basically commuter services. I therefore cannot see why the Minister’s Department cannot make it a condition of the contract that it will not pay the money if they start charging back-door fees. We have seen with so many free services over the years that the people who provide the service will find a back-door way of charging. This seems to be the thin end of the wedge by certain operators to create a charging system for people who are in receipt of free travel. I think it is wrong and it should be stamped out.