Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

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.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank Deputy O'Meara for raising this important issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Transport. While the Minister has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport, neither the Minister nor his officials is involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. The statutory obligation for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally rests with the National Transport Authority, NTA, which works with the public transport operators that deliver the services and have responsibility for day-to-day operational matters. The NTA has statutory responsibility for the regulation of fares charged to passengers in respect of public transport services provided under PSO contracts. They are the PSOs and the actual public ones.

I assure the Deputy that improving the accessibility, reliability and affordability of public transport, while ensuring the system remains well funded and responsive to passenger needs, is a core priority of the Government under the programme for Government. The 2026 PSO funding allocation of €940 million represents a significant 43% uplift from last year. It further supports subsidised bus and rail services across Ireland, including rural Ireland. This allocation also maintains targeted fare initiatives, such as the recently introduced free travel for all children up to the age of nine and the young adult card for those aged 19 to 25, as part of the NTA's national fares strategy. That of course is in the PSO contracts.

I am pleased to confirm that the free travel for children between the ages of five and eight initiative, which launched in September of this year, extends free travel on PSO services, thereby building on the previous policy that granted free travel to children under the age of five. This measure was announced as part of the budget 2025 package. It delivers on a key programme for Government commitment to make public transport more affordable and accessible for families. Uptake of this initiative has been really strong. Approximately 25,000 child Leap cards were issued in the first month after the launch of this scheme, and applications are continuing apace.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Government's decision did not include provision for extending free travel for children under the age of nine to commercial bus operators. While the NTA is responsible for licensing commercial bus services, any decisions regarding fares charged by these services are managed by commercial operators themselves, which largely operate without any State subvention. As such, while commercial operators are licensed by the NTA, they determine their own fare structures independently. I am sorry to not have better news for the Deputy on this. I am aware it is something he has campaigned on, cares very passionately about and wants to see provided for children in the areas he represents. All I can say is that this is now policy, is now law and is now happening on PSO services. I will provide the Deputy's feedback on licensed commercial bus services directly to the Minister, but his proposal is not currently in the plan.

Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I appreciate the response the Minister of State has given me on behalf of the Minister for Transport. I appreciate that a lot of the work that has been done has been really positive, but I really do not appreciate where the policy stands. I hope the Minister of State will carry that back, while she is at Cabinet, to the Minister. I represent a constituency that does not have PSO routes and does not have public routes either. A number of years ago we lost the X12 and X8 routes, which were direct routes that travelled through County Tipperary.

Deputy Ward spoke earlier about the 46A, which I had quite a fondness for during my years in UCD. We all mourn its loss. Interestingly enough, during that time I travelled on the X12 regularly. It ran from Limerick to Dublin. That is gone. We do not have it anymore. We have private operators.

We do not have the PSO routes but we have children under nine who cannot qualify for free transport or the free travel scheme in the way that their peers in areas that have PSO routes or urban areas can qualify. It is, quite simply, an inequity in the system.

In her response, the Minister of State stated: “I would like to assure the Deputy that improving the accessibility, reliability, and affordability of public transport, while ensuring the system remains well-funded and responsive to passenger needs, is a core priority under the programme for Government.” I ask the Minister of State to carry that exact sentence back to the Cabinet and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien. If we want to improve the accessibility, reliability and affordability of public transport, particularly public transport for young children under nine in rural Ireland, we need to give them the same access to those routes as children in urban areas or areas with PSO obligations. Just because we are unlucky enough not to have them does not mean that the children and families I represent in rural Ireland should be unlucky enough not to be able to access the system.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Deputy makes a very good argument for this, and I fully appreciate where he is coming from. Something that might help to strengthen the Deputy's case is the fact that the young adult card scheme was broadened in 2022 to include eligible services operated by commercial bus operators on an opt-in basis. Individual commercial operators chose to participate, and the NTA then compensated them for the agreed discount and the fare that was forgone, effectively. This was done to ensure that young people benefited from the reduced fares across both subsidised and participating commercial services. Perhaps there is some hope for the Deputy in the fact that this has happened from a young adult card perspective. It may bolster his case to put forward a proposal that would mirror this specifically for young children. If he does that, I will make sure it gets into the hands of the Minister for Transport, who has asked me to reaffirm that the Government remains committed to making public transport as accessible and affordable as possible, while also ensuring that our system remains financially sustainable in the long term.