Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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205. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the first- and full-year cost of expanding the free travel scheme to include those in receipt of domiciliary care allowance. [31198/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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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 2025 is €107.6 million.

Providing an accurate projection of the cost of extending the Free Travel scheme to those in receipt of Domiciliary Care Allowance 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. The fact that many operators have reduced fares for children and that in some cases children under five years of age can travel for free would also have to be taken into account.

Taking the above into consideration and based on 65,000 children benefitting from the Domiciliary Care Allowance, it is estimated that extending the Free Travel scheme to include those children, would cost in the region of €7m in a full year.

The Programme for Government 2025 has committed to examining extending the Free Travel scheme to include children in receipt of the Domiciliary Care Allowance. However, any decision to extend the Free Travel scheme to children benefitting from the Domiciliary Care Allowance will of course, have to take account of the availability of financial resources.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.