Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McHugh for raising this issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan. As Deputy McHugh confirmed, it relates to young adults travelling from the South to the North of Ireland using the Leap card scheme. As the Deputy will be aware, the Department of Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. However, the Department is not involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. The NTA has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally by way of public transport service contracts, and for the allocation of associated funding to the relevant operators. I assure the House that the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options. Public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal. In budget 2022, the Department of Transport secured €538 million of funding for public service obligation, PSO, and Local Link services that are provided by State operators and are under contract by the NTA this year.

As the House will be aware, in recognising the importance of incentivising more young people to use public transport, as part of budget 2022, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, secured €25 million of funding for the introduction of the young adult card. This exciting initiative allows any person nationwide who is between the ages of 19 and 23 to avail of an entitlement to discounted travel costs, and to increase the level of discount over and above the current student discount to an average discount of 50% across all services, including city, intercity and rural services. Mature students in full-time education are also included in the scheme as are eligible visitors to Ireland within the young adult age cohort. The young adult card was initially introduced on PSO services on 9 May and then extended to participating commercial bus operators on 4 September. This extension of the scheme to the commercial sector means that the 50% fare discount for holders of a young adult card - those aged between 19 and 23 - or student Leap card is now available on bus services provided by participating commercial bus operators. It is important to note that this discount is in addition to the 20% average fare discount on PSO services that was introduced in May as part of a suite of Government measures to help to combat the rising cost of living.

The Deputy has raised an interesting anomaly, which is that the grandparents of some of these students are able to travel on an all-island basis. I certainly will raise that with the Department of Transport. I encourage the Deputy to raise the issue directly with the shared island unit in Roinn an Taoisigh to pursue that anomaly, but also to promote the shared island initiative. This anomaly is something that should be further addressed in the context of the all-island strategic rail review. I will certainly address it to the Department of Transport. I thank the Deputy for his good wishes.

See this speech in context