Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First of all, it is not within the gift of my Department. Any money we spend on free travel is taxpayers' money. It says a lot about the Deputy's political philosophy that he sees taxpayers' money as a gift that the Government can just give out to resolve problems in companies, pay off debts or solve other difficulties. If we are using taxpayers' money, we expect to get something, such as a service, in return. This is not unusual when one buys something in bulk. I do not know if the Deputy goes to the supermarket very often but if I am buying Coke Zero, I buy the twin-pack and get a discount on that. If I am buying toilet rolls, I buy the 24-roll pack and get a bloody good discount on that too. That is bulk buying operates - one gets a significant discount. When it comes to the TV licence, for example, there is a discount from RTE. I do not, therefore, see why there should not be a discount. That is the basic principle that is applied.

As regards how this impacts on Bus Éireann, the Deputy should bear in mind that it is not just about Bus Éireann or CIE. These payments are also made to Luas. A sum of €8.5 million is paid to private operators, €1.5 million to Pobal for rural transport and €1.8 million is paid in respect of cross-Border travel. Any decision we make on free travel, therefore, will not be about CIE or any one part of that company because we are paying for a service and we need to have equity across the transport sector.

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