Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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626. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the free Leap card scheme, which was introduced under Rebuilding Ireland to remove transport costs for children living in emergency accommodation, has been rolled out to counties Cork, Limerick and Waterford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23348/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Arising from the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, my Department is funding an initiative to provide homeless families residing in hotel accommodation and family hubs in the Dublin Region with access to free public transport for essential school journeys.

The Dublin Region Homeless Executive is overseeing implementation of this initiative and, working in partnership the National Transport Authority, has put arrangements in place for the provision of Leap cards to homeless families under this initiative. Given that Leap cards have an inbuilt value-limit, the cards are being made available to homeless families on an on-going basis throughout the academic year, via Focus Ireland’s State-funded Family Homelessness Action Teams.

Outside of this arrangement, the Community Welfare Service of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection considers, on a case-by-case basis, providing for costs associated with the transport needs of homeless families under the Exceptional Needs Payments scheme. This provision is available to all homeless families outside of the Dublin Region.

The limitations of public transport infrastructure in regions outside of Dublin restrict the possibility of Leap cards being usable for transport between emergency accommodation and schools. In light of this, and the availability of other supports as highlighted above, I have no proposals to extend this initiative outside of the Dublin Region.