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. There are over one million customers with direct eligibility. The estimated expenditure on free travel in 2023 is €95 million.

As part of the “Make Work Pay” initiative, persons who move directly from certain long term Social Protection schemes to employment are entitled to retain their Free Travel entitlement for a further period of 5 years, where they previously had the entitlement to Free Travel on the scheme.

Providing an accurate projection of the cost extending this measure to 10 years is very difficult as the cost is determined by the usage of the extra passes provided and not by the number of newly qualified people. Therefore, my Department is not able to provide an accurate estimate cost of the measure outlined by the Deputy.

Any decision to extend the Free Travel scheme “Make Work Pay” initiative to 10 years would require additional funding for the free travel scheme and would have to be considered in the context of overall budgetary negotiations.

Finally, the Department of Social Protection provides Additional Needs Payments as part of the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme for people who have an urgent need, which they cannot meet from their own resources. These payments are available through our Community Welfare Officers and include help towards recurring travel costs that cannot be met from the person's own resources and are deemed to be necessary.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.