Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I move amendment No. 17:

In page 21, between lines 1 and 2, to insert the following:

"14.—The provisions of the Principal Act regarding travel benefit in kind shall be extended to make provision for disregarding the benefit of monthly and quarterly tickets provided by an employer.".

The purpose of this amendment is to make it as easy as possible for employees to use public transport. The Minister indicated on Committee Stage that he thought the arrangements in that regard had become more flexible. That may be due to the repeated announcements by the Government regarding the €42 million budget for integrated ticketing.

Where the public transport arrangements work, which is usually in larger public and private sector organisations, they are undoubtedly beneficial but people who work part-time or atypical hours are much more restricted. I recently met somebody who encountered problems in this regard after taking parental leave from the public service during the summer months. If the Minister wants to encourage people to use public transport, he has to enable those with atypical working arrangements to derive the same benefits from purchasing tickets on a monthly or quarterly basis as employees, such as the staff of Leinster House, who can take advantage of the current scheme. The objective of my amendment is to extend the current scheme, which works well, to people with different travel or work arrangements or who take parental leave during the summer.

Integrated ticketing was promised four or five years ago and was to be delivered in full last year. The budget for the project has increased from €19 million to €42 million and is continuing to increase. It is like a bus or train in that it has never arrived at the station; I do not know if we will ever see the completion of the project unless there is a change of Government because I do not believe the political will exists to progress it. In the meantime, the travel scheme I propose would encourage people to use public transport. The Minister could be more flexible. I appreciate additional administration would result for the Revenue but this could be done with a little imagination. I do not know what would be the breakdown on a gender basis but female workers might benefit in that they are more often engaged in part-time and atypical work because of child care commitments. I commend the amendment to the Minister.

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