Clarity Needed on Travel Pass Future – Crowe<\/p>\n
Dublin South West representative Se\u00e1n Crowe TD has said that the Free
\nTravel Pass Scheme which operates for pensioners and people with
\ndisabilities needs to be clarified and its funding ensured for the
\nfuture. Crowe was responding to a controversial\u00a0 proposal\u00a0 that
\nsuggests that the travel pass should be limited to off-peak times.<\/p>\n
A Government working group is reviewing the future of the free scheme,
\nwhich allows up to 1.2 million people \u2013 or 25 per cent of the
\npopulation \u2013 to travel for free on public and some private transport.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said<\/p>\n
\n“The current free travel scheme is an incredibly important support to
\ntens of thousands of vulnerable\u00a0 people right across the country. It
\nis vital support to a community with higher than average health
\nconcerns that needs access to transport in order to attend
\nmedical appointments but also to break down isolation, maintain a
\nsocial life and independent living. The social benefit of the scheme is
\nobvious and is a practical measure that promotes inclusivity.<\/p>\n“A controversial proposal made to the working group reviewing the
\nscheme is that the travel pass should be limited to off-peak times.
\nThis would negate many of the positive aspects of the scheme and
\ndoesn’t appear to take into account the limited nature of travel
\nschemes in many areas of the country.<\/p>\n“The proposal to change the current system has created unnecessery
\nfear and worry. If the Government agree that this is a backward step
\nthen the Minister For Transport needs to publicly say just that.<\/p>\n“Over the last five years funding for the scheme has stood still, but
\nfares have gone up across the board to meet higher fuel and
\nmaintenance costs. Public bus and rail funding has been cut on
\naverage by about 20% and semi state companies are struggling to
\nmaintain a quality service with extraordinarily low subsidies compared
\nto our European counterparts.<\/p>\n“It is vital that public transport maintains its special place in
\nsociety as a service provider for all the community especially those
\nthat are more vulnerable and isolated. The Government needs to end
\nthe speculation and bring greater clarity to the Free Travel Pass
\nScheme.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nNote to Editor<\/p>\n
Peak travel-time restrictions were introduced in the 1960s and limited
\nfree travel on certain routes during morning and evening rush hours.
\nThe last of these restrictions were removed almost a decade ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clarity Needed on Travel Pass Future – Crowe Dublin South West representative Se\u00e1n Crowe TD has said that the Free Travel Pass Scheme which operates for pensioners and people with disabilities needs to be clarified and its funding ensured for the future. Crowe was responding to a controversial\u00a0 proposal\u00a0 that suggests that the travel pass […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2284"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2286,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284\/revisions\/2286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}