Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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356. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her plans to limit the use of bus passes for older persons on any of the bus routes which are being considered for privatisation; if she will provide assurances that passes will still be valid on all routes and times as is currently the case, post-privatisation of any routes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29014/14]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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403. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will confirm that the travel pass for senior citizens will not be withdrawn in budget 2015. [29549/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 356 and 403 together.

The current free travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. These include road, rail and ferry services provided by companies such as Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann, as well as Luas and services provided by almost 90 private transport operators. At the end of May this year there were over 790,000 customers in receipt of free travel.

Funding for the free travel scheme was capped by the previous Government as outlined in the National Recovery Plan 2011-2014. To implement this funding cap during a time in which passenger numbers have been increasing each year the Department has had to impose a freeze on the amounts paid to companies and a complete restriction on the admittance of new companies or routes to the scheme. This has included new companies taking over previously extant routes.

Given the increasing number of recipients, the funding pressures and the changes to the transport system such as the privatisation of some routes, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and I established a working group with representatives from the two Departments, as well as the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the National Transport Authority to review the free travel scheme. The purpose of this review is to examine and report on the current operation and future development of the free travel scheme.

I appreciate the importance of the scheme and the value it provides to the hundreds of thousands of mostly elderly people who use it. I have no plans to take passes away from pensioners nor to limit the use of passes for older persons on any of the bus routes which are being considered for privatisation. It is important, however, to ensure that the scheme, which has been in operation for almost fifty years, can continue to operate in an efficient and sustainable way into the future.