Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

People with free travel will travel free on this scheme. Therefore, they are not being charged. We have not got the report, but I understand we will have it shortly and we will make it available. We have made money available for January, February and March this year. From what I hear anecdotally, my argument is the opposite. It would appear from what is happening on the night-time scheme that the vast majority of people are travelling for free because they are eligible for free travel. Before we set up this scheme, we were told there was a major problem with people under the age of 66 who tried to go out and socialise, because of the laws on drinking and driving. I wonder whether some of the services were structured correctly to attract a younger clientele that would have paid, which would have made these services more economic and would have allowed us to provide more services for our money.

Many of these services operated on fixed bus routes, with a fixed time and a fixed place and so on. People might be picked up at their houses, but the bus would go to one destination. We should look at the model whereby a hackney could be on a retainer in a fixed geographic area over a fixed time, such between as 7 p.m. on a Friday night and 2 a.m. on a Saturday morning. For a fixed fee, the hackney would always be available to go anywhere in that area. That would attract much more young people to use the service. It would make it more viable and when those who can afford to pay do so it facilitates us in providing more services.

When we get the report, we will make it available. We could then have a debate on it.

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