Call for €12 charge to be brought in if Limerick students drive car to college
THIRD-LEVEL students driving their own car to college in Limerick every day should be made pay a €12 charge each day in order to dissuade them from doing so.
That’s the view of Fianna Fail councillor Bridie Collins, who also called for public transport to be free for those studying in higher and further education in a bid to improve the environment.
“We need to discourage the use of the private car,” she said at this month’s full council meeting. “Make students pay €12 a day if they are driving to college.”
Such a charge would mirror the controversial ULEZ system in London, which sees drivers of vehicles facing a charge if they don’t meet certain emission standards when they enter the British capital.
But it's not clear how any system like this would work in practice, or who would be liable to collect the charge.
It comes with traffic particularly heavy around Limerick’s third level colleges now that students have returned for the new academic year.
The call from Cllr Collins, who lives in Adare, was condemned by her own party colleague, Cllr Kevin Sheahan, who said at the meeting: “A €12 charge just because you have a car? I think you need to rethink that one!” He accused Cllr Collins of “trying to get a headline”.
Patrickswell councillor Dan McSweeney, who was a student up to May and relied on his car, described her remarks as “disappointing.”
“We as a country are not ready. We have poor public transport which would not have the ability to replace the car. We also must understand that many students in college are struggling to pay for different things financially, and we need to support students as much as we can,” he said.
Cllr Collins, who chairs the local authority’s economic committee, believes getting people using public transport at a young age will help them stick to it throughout life. “If we want people to use public transport we need to start with our students. If they get into the habit of using public transport, they will do for the rest of their lives.”
The comments were made as she was seconding a resolution brought forward by Cllr Sarah Kiely, Fine Gael, that local authority members would write to Transport Minister Eamon Ryan, Transport for Ireland (TFI) and Irish Rail to ask the decision to no longer accept third-level ID for discounted fares be reversed.
If students wish to avail of cheaper rates for travelling on buses, trains and the Luas, they must now purchase a pre-paid TFI Leap card.