Seanad debates

Tuesday, 28 September 2021

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

2:30 pm

Photo of John McGahonJohn McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have raised my topic of discussion previously in the House. I refer to the concept of introducing flexible three-day TaxSaver tickets for commuters. I first raised this matter in June of last year. More than 12 months have passed. We have returned to full capacity on public transport and workers across the country have returned to their offices and yet we still do not have this type of ticket. People must still pay for monthly and annual tickets when they may only be making four trips each week instead of the usual ten, which is unfair. I am raising this issue because I ask for the assistance of the Leader and the House in trying to get some clarity from the National Transport Authority, NTA, regarding the process of moving forward with introducing this type of ticket.

The response I received from the NTA referred to TaxSaver tickets being governed under tax legislation from the 1990s, which states that such tickets shall not apply in respect of "expenses incurred by the body corporate in or in connection with the provision for a director or employee of a monthly or annual bus, railway or ferry travel pass". Therefore, the NTA is stating that one aspect of the issue is that it does not know whether legislative change is required to introduce this type of ticket, since the legislation clearly refers to "monthly or annual" passes. The NTA is trying to figure out if it might be possible to introduce a ticket that would be valid for 100 days of travel in a year and which would also fit within the definition contained in the legislation. As I see it then, the NTA is stating that the problem is that it does not know if legislative change is required or whether it might be possible to introduce a flexible ticket within the parameters of the 1997 legislation.

If legislative change is required, it is a pity that it has not been brought forward yet. Given that we passed so much legislation regarding Covid-19 in the past year and a half, I am of the view that this matter should have been addressed by now. It is a bit late in the day to state that we are still trying to determine if legislative change is required. My hope is that we could write to the NTA to get clarity on this issue. If legislative change is needed to introduce a flexible TaxSaver ticket, then we could find that out. If legislative change is needed, let us go ahead and do that and if such change is not needed, then let us take the next step once we have that clarity. The NTA told me that it hopes to introduce this type of ticket in quarter 1 or quarter 2 of next year. We should be pushing to have it introduced before Christmas at the latest.

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