Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State for being here on behalf of the Minister for Transport. I congratulate her on her recent elevation. The matter I am raising affects families, especially in rural and regional Ireland, in a way that is unfair and out of step with the Government's transport and climate objectives. I am referring to the exclusion of commercial bus operators from the under-nines free travel scheme. Successive budgets have introduced measures designed to reduce public transport costs and these have been broadly welcomed as they are very good, but there is a significant and unexplained gap in policy and it affects the children and families I represent in rural Ireland.

Children under the age of nine travel free on public service obligation, PSO, services but not on commercial bus routes, even though these routes are often the only public transport options in rural towns and villages such as those in north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny. Commercial operators play a central role in our transport system. The private bus sector is responsible for carrying over 75 million passengers a year. It supports 11,000 jobs and contributes more than €600 million to the economy. It is already participating in the free travel scheme and the young adult card. Despite this track record, it was left out of the under-nines initiative without a clear rationale even though this should be low-hanging fruit. It is a very inequitable system for rural and regional areas. A two-tier system has been created. In cities with extensive PSO networks, children travel free. In rural Ireland, where families have few alternatives, children continue to pay full fares. This creates an obvious urban-rural disparity and it is difficult to justify.

The exclusion of these children from this initiative also runs counter to our climate ambitions. A single coach can remove as many as 40 cars from the road. Even a modest shift of 10% away from car travel at peak times would reduce annual emissions by more than 14,000 tonnes. We cannot credibly ask families to leave the car at home if public transport for their children is more expensive simply because they live outside big cities or large rural areas. Importantly, there is an easy fix to this problem. Including commercial operators in the scheme would cost less than €1 million per year. As the Department of Transport has an annual budget of €4 billion, it would be money well spent in rural Ireland. The Leap card technology is already in place and can deliver the scheme without an administrative burden on the State. More importantly, the benefit goes to families, including those I represent in north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny. It eases the cost-of-living burden on parents of young children at a time when everyday expenses continue to climb.

My questions are quite straightforward. Will the Department move to include commercial bus operators in the under-nines free travel scheme as a matter of priority? When can we expect this to take place? Families across the country deserve a consistent and equitable transport system. This is a small change but it would have a large and immediate impact. I mentioned that this would cost less than €1 million from a budget of €4 billion. I mentioned that this inequity within our system means that the people I represent in rural Ireland - in north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny - are not getting the same access to transport as those in large urban areas. At a cost of less than €1 million, from a budget of €4 billion, it is low-hanging fruit we can deliver for the young people and families I represent in rural Ireland.

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