Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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258. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if leap cards are provided to Ukrainian refugees under 18; and the way that they can apply for same. [29003/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) has statutory responsibility for promoting the development of an accessible, integrated and sustainable public transport network. This includes securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally and the development of the Leap Card. The NTA also has national responsibility for integrated local and rural transport, including the Rural Transport Programme management, which operates under the TFI Local Link brand.

In line with the whole of Government approach, my Department and the NTA have been working on practical and meaningful responses to the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis.

From the beginning of the crisis, we have provided newly arriving Ukrainians with free travel from their port of entry to their end destination on any PSO or Local Link service. Indeed, many commercial bus services similarly offered this assistance in getting people to a safe location.

I was also pleased to announce the provision of emergency public transport services to those refugees housed in rural or isolated locations to ensure better access to our local communities. This will be achieved through an acceleration of network improvements identified through the Connecting Ireland public consultation, including additional stops, route modifications, and more services with the aim of increasing connectivity. Rural areas will avail of such improvements, in practice catering for both existing demands as well as responding to the increased pressures on services where the local population has grown in response to the humanitarian crisis. Additional bus services will also be deployed to cater for those housed away from the existing public transport network. Such measures will provide better access to a range of amenities, employment opportunities and to onward public transport connections to larger centres.

In addition, I would like to advise the Deputy that the Free Travel Scheme is a non-statutory scheme administered by the Department of Social Protection, which is available to persons aged 66 years or over who are permanently resident in the State, and to all carers in receipt of Carers' Allowance. The Scheme is also available to certain people with disabilities and people who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments. Any extension of this scheme would therefore be a matter for the Department of Social Protection to consider.