Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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427. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the free travel scheme will be applicable to more bus routes that are publicly licensed in 2021; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42104/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Free Travel Scheme is currently available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over, to carers and to customers under 66 who are in receipt of certain disability type payments.  There are currently approximately 980,595 customers in receipt of Free Travel.  However, over 1.6 million people currently benefit from the scheme when companion and spousal passes are taken into account.

The scheme allows those eligible to travel for free on most CIE public transport services, LUAS, and a range of services offered by up to 80 private operators.

Prior to the Covid 19 outbreak, requests by transport operators to join the scheme were received periodically, with payment rates negotiated based on surveys of free travel passengers. 

Due to the continuing impact of Covid-19 measures and restrictions on transport service provision, the uncertainty around numbers opting to travel and the consequential lack of reliable survey data, it remains a difficult time for operators to enter the scheme.  Survey outcomes in the current operating environment are unlikely to reflect true free travel passenger numbers in more normal times.  The situation is kept under review and it is expected that as services return to more normal levels, new operators will seek and join the scheme.  

Any decision to extend the Free Travel scheme to include more publicly licensed bus routes would have cost implications for the Exchequer and would have to be considered in the context of overall budget availability.  The funding provision for the Free Travel scheme for 2021 is €95 million. 

I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy.