Louth representatives welcome changes to Youth Travel Card scheme

News that the age rules of the Youth Travel Card scheme are being widened to include 16 to 18 year olds who are in third level education, has been welcomed by local political representatives.

Louth Sinn Féin TD, Ruairí Ó Murchú welcomed the news of the decision, having raised the issue in Leinster House last week with Transport Minister, Eamon Ryan. In response to a question from Deputy Ó Murchú, Minister Ryan said:

“The NTA is widening the age rules of the scheme to allow 16-, 17-, and 18-year-old students in third level education to apply for the student leap card so that they can also avail of the discount. This is in line with the approach that has been taken with mature students who are in full-time third level education. I am pleased to advise that the NTA has already commenced the technical work on this matter, which is scheduled to be completed in the coming weeks”

Deputy Ó Murchú queried the rule change with the Minister, asking whether apprentices of the same age would be considered for the discount. He also asked whether commercial bus operators will take part in the scheme and if the fare reductions of 20% will continue after the budget this week. Minister Ryan said it would be looked at but added: “There is one slight complication relating to the matter raised by Deputy Ó Murchú.

“My understanding is that an under-18-year-old on public transport services is entitled to a child fare. The concern about those fares does not apply. There are a limited number of other services where those fares would not apply, if young people are working and are not students, but those are very limited and specific circumstances. I will look at those to see if there are other ways of closing that final gap, but the vast majority of those aged under 18 on the vast majority of public transport services are entitled to a child fare. I will announce that on budget day, but I will be very much arguing for it.”

Minister Ryan further added in relation to commercial operators, “to answer Deputy Ó Murchú's question, I expect the involvement of commercial bus operators to be very significant. Looking at the budget implications, it is not cheap but it is appropriate and right for us to extend the scheme to them.”

Widening the scheme to include 16 to 18 year olds in third level education, was “the sensible decision to make” according to Dundalk Senator John McGahon. Senator McGahon said “the Government recently brought in a Youth Travel Card which provides a 50% reduction in transport for 19 to 24 year olds, however, this card excluded 16 to 18 year olds who use private operators, like the Matthews Bus, to get to college.”

Senator McGahon said that “most students leaving Dundalk to travel to college in Dublin use the Matthews Bus, a private operator, and as a result they were being excluded from the price reduction because of their age. A number of parents spoke to me about this anomaly, and I went directly to the Minister for Transport and the NTA in an effort to fix it and make sure that 16 to 18 years olds were included.

“Both the Minister and the NTA agreed that this was an unintended consequence of a good policy and were keen to fix it.”

Senator McGahon continued, “the Minister confirmed in the Dail that they had widened the age rules to allow for 16 to 18 year old students in third level education to apply for the student leap card so they can also avail of the discount. They will be able to apply for the discount from next week."The Fine Gael Sentor added, “we are working really hard to make sure that we are putting money back into people’s pockets and this is another example of making sure that no one is being left behind.”