Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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Ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a dhéanamh leis an Teachta Calleary fá choinne a cheapachán mar Aire Stáit. Guím ádh mór air sa phost úr. This is one of the downsides of getting that recent elevation. If Deputy Calleary had not got it, he would be home in his bed now. However, the Minister of State is here into the early hours of the morning. I am glad he is here. This issue does not relate to his Department but I know he will use his influence and communication skills to pass on a couple of messages.

I want to raise an issue in relation to Creeslough in my supplementary, but the purpose of this Topical Issue matter is to raise what I believe is a case of discrimination against students. I do not know how many people in the Minister of State's constituency of Mayo would be going to Magee college in Derry, Queen's University or Jordanstown. It is the case that a student in west Donegal going to Galway who has a Leap card will get upwards of a 50% rebate on the cost of transportation to Ollscoil na Gaillimhe. However, a student from that same parish in west Donegal who is going to Belfast does not get the rebate. There is some sort of a nominal rebate as far as the Border but once the bus hits the Border there is no rebate.

I am encouraged by some of the correspondence I have seen to the effect that there are ongoing discussions but, quite frankly, a meeting needs to be held. Ongoing discussions means that there has been a meeting or maybe more than one meeting, but now there needs to be another meeting. Heads need to be put together here because students feel discriminated against.

Students have always gone to the North. Traditionally, a big percentage of students from my county have gone across the Border and they feel discriminated against. If the granny or granddad of one of these students has a pension and is over 66 years of age, she or he will get free transportation to Belfast. I accept that this comes from a different Department, the Department of Social Protection. I will set out the question I am putting to the Minister of State tonight. If a senior citizen in west Donegal can get free transportation to Belfast, involving a 100% rebate from one Department, why does their grandson or granddaughter not get any rebate as a student in Belfast, Derry or Coleraine? That is my case.

I ask the Minister of State tonight, or rather this morning, to use his position to ask one of his own officials to make contact. I do not know if officials from the National Transport Authority, NTA, will be up at this time of the morning listening to this debate. No doubt they will not, but I hope that there will be follow-up. This is a matter that can and should be, and certainly needs to be, resolved. At the end of the day, if a student in Letterkenny heading down to the beautiful city of Galway is getting 50% back by having a Leap card and his or her next-door neighbour in Letterkenny going to Belfast has to pay the full whack, there is something wrong.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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I will not elaborate further, but I am glad that the Minister of State has not read some of the prepared reply into the record. It is pure dynamite to say we will subsidise up to the Border, given that since 2016 we have been saying we do not want a hard border on the island. Now a Department is subsidising up to the Border but not further. Incidentally, if one is going from Letterkenny to Dublin, the fare is subsidised. Anyway, it is dynamite. The Minister of State's suggestion about the shared island unit is an excellent one.

In the brief time I have remaining, I want to raise a specific issue in relation to Creeslough. We will have time set aside in two weeks to discuss in more depth the situation in the aftermath of the Creeslough tragedy. The specific issue is that due to the ongoing investigation, the main route through Creeslough is closed. Of the two pick-up and drop-off points for the community from Creeslough and even into Dunfanaghy, one is Falcarragh and the other is Termon. I am asking tonight if we could get somebody from the Department of Transport to reach out to a member of the community - I can facilitate that - to try to introduce a short-term shuttle service for people who wish to avail of this transport.

People who avail of public transport do not have a car, so they are looking to get taxis or to get neighbours to take them farther distances. This is very frustrating for so many people.

I would ask for a contact person in the Department to give me a ring me tomorrow. I can link them up with a member of the community to put that service in place. We are probably only talking about a week. I do not know how long the investigation will continue; it is potentially another week. I do not have that information, as it is a prerogative of the Garda.

One of the answers I will get back will be there has to be a tendering process. We have to use our common sense here. People are still dealing with this enormous tragedy, and the tragedy will be with the community for a long time into the future. It is about what we can do now in the short window we have available to fix things with a bit of common sense, such as a person picking up the phone and trying to get this sorted. I think it can be done. In fairness to Donegal County Council and all the Departments, they are all working hard to try to do the right and best thing. This is just one little thing that could help enormously.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families of the bereaved and injured, indeed, with the entire community of Creeslough and with all of our public representative colleagues. In the spirit that was engendered in the entire country in that terrible week, I will absolutely ensure contact is made with the Deputy tomorrow to discuss this.