Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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666. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of passenger journeys for which her Department compensated the licensed transport operator under the free travel scheme in respect of each year from 2015 to 2020 and during the period January 2021 to June 2021 in respect of licensed routes numbers 481 and 482 and licence numbers 01019 and 99070. [41813/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The free travel scheme permits, for those eligible under the scheme, free travel on most CIE public transport services, Luas and a range of services offered by some 80 private operators countrywide. The scheme is available to all people aged over 66 and those under age 66 on qualifying payments, who are living legally and permanently in the State. At the end of July, there were 1,005,333 customers eligible for Free Travel.

The transport provider concerned was a participant in the Free Travel scheme during the periods 2015 to 2020 and from January to June 2021, for the routes specified by the Deputy, and has been paid accordingly for the carriage of Free Travel passengers.

It is not possible to provide the number of passenger journeys for the periods concerned, as requested by the Deputy, as my Department does not hold this information.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.