Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to raise with the Leader the young adult travel card. It was introduced on 9 May last year and extended to participating commercial operators in September of last year. It is a worthwhile scheme where students attending colleges or universities or doing traineeships anywhere in the South of Ireland will get a 50% reduction on the adult fare of that journey. It is a great idea and I very much welcome it. It has been welcomed broadly as well by everyone using the facility. It makes public transport more accessible and it is good for the environment. It is a win-win all the way round. Unfortunately, for a certain cohort of students, it does not work so well. The students I am referring to are students from the South of Ireland who are attending colleges or universities in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, it does not apply to them. I raised this matter, by way of a Commencement debate, six months ago and I was given a commitment then that the matter would be examined. I received no reply. Approximately 2,000 students and their families are affected by this. I wrote to the Department and the NTA, from which I received a response stating that if a student was travelling from any of the Border counties, primarily but not exclusively, the part of the journey that is in the South would be eligible for the 50% reduction but the part in the North would not be.