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

First of all, we only have a certain amount of money allocated in the budget for free travel this year, which is in the region of €77 million to €80 million. That is the envelope in which I can operate. I do not have the authority to spend a whole load of extra money beyond that envelope in one year because of the way the Estimates work. It is not the case that I can just decide to pay additional funds to public transport companies. The same would have to apply, and the same treatment would have to be given, to private operators such as the private bus companies and the Luas for example. Any increase would also have to apply to the bus operators who have continued to operate for the past 18 days, to the Luas and to others. For obvious reasons I could not single out one part of one public company and give it an increase without giving it to everyone else as well.

I am keen to come to a situation, if we can, whereby we are able to increase funding for free travel not just for commercial bus operators operating in the public sector, but also for those in the private sector. That would provide additional revenue for Expressway but it would also provide additional revenue for private operators. It might, perhaps, bring some more of them into the scheme, because some are not currently. That would serve the very important public policy objective of giving people who have the free travel pass more options. That would be of benefit to the taxpayer.

See this speech in context