Tom Morrissey (Progressive Democrats)

I also welcome Deputy Cowen to the House for the first time as Minister for Finance and congratulate him wholeheartedly on his elevation to that challenging Department.

Public transport is an issue the Government must address. There is currently a travel pass scheme marketed by Dublin Bus which is widely used by companies, particularly in Dublin. It was first introduced as a benefit-in-kind scheme and comes under that heading in the Department of Finance. Consequently, it has been the practice that the pass is purchased through the employer and the employee then receives tax back on it.

It has worked well but there are a few anomalies. The Civil Service will only purchase a pass for permanent employees. The 12-month pass can be issued in any month of the year. However, a temporary staff member in Dublin must buy a monthly ticket costing €96, which does not offer any tax rebate, while the Civil Service employer is happy to purchase the full pass for a permanent employee and deduct the cost and compute the tax allowance on a monthly basis.

There is also a restriction in that the scheme is only available through employers and it is up to an employer to decide to extend it to his or her staff. We should make it more widely available as an incentive to any person who wants to use public transport. He or she should be able to purchase the ticket directly and claim the tax credit in the annual computation of tax. When this matter is examined annually by the Department of Finance, the principal concern is the cost of the scheme by way of benefit-in-kind. I suggest there should be a change in mindset in this regard. Dublin Bus has received significant investment but buses are operating at approximately 23% capacity over a 12 or 14 hour operational day and the streets continue to be congested.

The system is in place to extend this travel saver pass scheme to every motorist and now is the time to consider this option. I suggest the system should be examined by the new Minister for Transport to see how people can be given the incentive and how restrictions can be lifted. I ask for a root and branch review of the system to see if it can be extended. I ask the Minister to consider this scheme in the next budget in a few weeks time and I await his reply.