Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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193. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of extending the free travel scheme to all children under 18 years of age and all students in higher level education; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22802/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The 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 over 80 private transport operators. There are currently approx. 977,000 customers with direct eligibility. The estimated expenditure on free travel in 2020 is €95 million.

Providing an estimate of the cost of extending the free travel scheme to all children aged under 18 and to those in higher level education is very difficult as the cost is determined by the usage of the extra passes provided and not by the increased number. The fact that many operators have reduced fares for children and higher education students and that in some cases children under five years of age can travel for free would also have to be taken into account.

The objective of the free travel scheme is to ensure older people and people with disabilities remain active within their community. Extending the eligibility of the free travel scheme to the cohort of people the Deputy has suggested would change this objective, and radically change the nature of the scheme. Any such scheme would also require a fundamental expansion to the administrative set up and operation of the free travel scheme, as it would have to grant and withdraw potentially hundreds of thousands of passes each year, using information which would have to be provided by all the colleges in the State in the case of higher education students. Any proposals in this regard would have to be considered in the context of priorities for the free travel scheme and the budgetary implications of same.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.