Senator John McGahon- speech from 5 Apr 2022

Minister, the reason I'm here today is to first of all obviously welcome a really progressive and ambitious project that we're embarking on which is the youth travel scheme and for those of those who don't realise what the youth travel card is doing is that it's providing 50% free costs of travel to those aged between the age of 17 to 23 but the reason I'm standing in the Senate today and raising this as a commencement debate follows on from a really important meeting I had yesterday with Paddy Matthews who is the founder and managing director of Matthews buses which operates buses from Dudalk, Drogheda and Bettystown and if I have to declare an interest I suppose in one sense it's that I was a commuter with Matthews buses for seven eight years to this house when I worked here as a member of staff and it is a wonderful service that provides so much for people in my in my community and it was a service that was started 20 years ago when there wasn't direct services between Dudalk and Dublin or Drogheda and Dublin so it provides a valuable valuable resource for the people of my county and however the problem here today Minister is that the 50% levy is not scheduled to take place on the 9th of May alongside all other public service operators it's not been included for commercial bus operators it will be included at a later date and that has been confirmed in the past 24 hours by Minister Ryan we know that but what I'm coming today and what I'm coming to you Minister and coming to government about is that we need to bring clarity as soon as possible to those who are in the private bus sector buses to be able to say to them that the 50% will be available for you come a certain date because if you just look at the figures I just googled it there before I came in here at the minute a return ticket on Matthews bus from Dundalk to Dublin works out about 17 euro a return ticket on bus there and works out at about 11 euro so if you were to take the 50% off for bus there and which will come in on the 9th 50% of 11 is 5 euro and 50 cents so why on earth would I get a bus for 17 euro return when I can take one at 550 on bus granted the bus errand granted the bus errand 100x bus it provides a service so it takes longer to get to Dublin because it goes via other villages and goes via Dublin airport but that's a huge price discrepancy even when the 50% is introduced for private buses as well at 17 euro 50% of that is 850 so it's still cheaper but the problem is what we're introducing now is a massive discrepancy between public and private we are coming out of a pandemic of the last two and a half years where bus numbers are massively down and before this pandemic Matthews buses would have operated about 7,000 people a day they're operating at 51 to 56% of that today now for them to be able to get any sort of profit or run a manageable service they need to get back to about 70% pre-pandemic levels they accept they'll never get back to the 100% because of remote working because of the way things are and but they need to get back to a certain sustainable level but at the minute I feel and I'm not saying this we're doing this as a government we need to see them also and I would consider it to be boatpacked and to go ahead and have a look at the founded people who were involved in private bus sectors around the country as a result of this because absolute competition is key we need to provide competition in an open market to provide the best outcome from consumers but this isn't open competition this is this is not open competition it's a direct its providing a substantial a massive financial substantial a massive financial advantage to private sector bus operators compared to the private sector and what i'm looking for from government today minister is clarity that the government absolutely will introduce the 50 percent and to provide a timeline as to when that 50 will come in because i think that clarity and that certainty will be very very important for those who are involved in the private operators bus sector thank you very much senator mcgahan minister you have four minutes to respond thank you very much kheer look and i'd like to thank uh senator john mcgahan for your question and i welcome the opportunity to discuss this important topic today and just to say that i'm answering this question on behalf of minister eamon ryan so i will be going back to minister ryan in relation to the um comments that that you've raised here as well today i understand that your question is in relation to the inclusion of the commercial bus sector in the young adult card initiative and from the outset i just would like to reassure uh you senator mcgahan that it has always been minister ryan's intention to include commercial bus operators as part of this exciting ferris initiative and i want to be very clear that licensed bus and coach operators are an integral part of the overall public transport system particularly in areas around the country which are not covered by existing public service bus and rail services in recognition of the important role that these operators play the government has continued to provide temporary financial financial supports throughout the covet 19 pandemic for certain licensed commercial services with a view to protecting capacity across the public transport sector right throughout the crisis in acknowledgement of the continuing difficulties facing the sector i'm pleased to inform the senator that i that minister ryan previously approved an extension of the supports up to the 30th of june 2022 and to date over 60 million euro has been provided to support the commercial bus operators during this challenging time in relation to senator mcgan's specific question regarding the youth adult card recognizing the importance of incentivizing more young people to use public transport as part of budget 2022 and minister ryan was delighted to secure 25 million euro of funding for the schemes introduction so this exciting initiative will allow any person nationwide who is between the age of 19 and 23 to avail of an entitlement for discounted travel costs and to increase the level of discount over and above the current student discount to an average discount of 50 percent across all services including city intercity and rural services mature students in full-time education will also be included in the scheme as will eligible visitors to ireland within the young adult age cohort the discount will initially be made available on all subsidized pso bus rail and lewis services and i expect to launch the young adult card on pso services next month it will then be broadened to include commercial operators at a later date with an expectation to launch before the end of the year it's clear that the young adult card will be of great benefit to this cohort of users and will not only promote modal shift in the transport sector but it should also contribute towards a reduced reliance on private transport with the associated benefit benefit of transport emissions savings the nta has commenced work in relation to the implementation of the new fares structure for young adults and and its deployment i must stress that it is technically more challenging to roll out the young adult card on the commercial bus network than it is on the leap enabled pso network and as such it would take longer to make the fair discount available to commercial bus operators the nta is in detailed discussions with transport operators and my department also regarding the range of issues that need to be addressed to assist with this press process the nta has established a working group to consider options and to develop a plan to implement the young adult card on commercial bus operators in as timely a manner as possible taking into account current ticketing capabilities to ensure a viable scheme is implemented the working group includes three representatives from the coach tourism and transport council of ireland two further representatives from the commercial sector and a representative from the department of transport the industry experience on the on this working group will likely expedite the process of deploying the youth adult card to the wider commercial bus sector but i will relay your comments here today senator to minister ryan also thank you very much minister and now senator mcgadden you have one minute to reply no thank you thank you very much for that clarity minister because when we look at it the the cbo sector is absolutely central to providing um an effective and an inclusive public transport system we need to have private operators naturally in along with the public sector as well but at the minute when you look at it their commuters from my town who get the matthews bus to dublin will be discriminated against for the duration of time between the 9th of may and whenever the government decide to um whenever the government decide to introduce the 50 for people who are getting private transport so what i would really and this is the crux of the issue that i want to get to i accept that the government are going to do this and i'm very appreciative of that but what i'm looking for is clarity from government and i appreciate you go back to minister ryan about it but clarity as soon as possible so that certainty can be given to private bus operators to say the 50 will be included with you by x amount of date because the longer that that goes on more passengers are going to stop taking private buses they're obviously going to go with the cheaper option which is the public thing and it's about making sure that there's a fair playing field right across the board for not only commuters but those in both public and private bus operating sectors also go ahead minister you've one minute to respond thank you senator and i will relay i i i hear the sense of urgency around i suppose getting this over the line and just to reassure you that both the nta and the department of transport have been engaging directly with commercial uh bus operators to help us inform policy decisions in relation to the transport sector and just in relation to that working group that i referenced earlier the department of transport has been liaising with the coach tourism and transport council of ireland to cttc since may 2020 and to date 22 meetings have taken place and a further meeting is scheduled to take place later this month more recently on the 25th of march minister ryan met with the cttc to discuss their concerns regarding the the sector and as outlined earlier it is his intention to include commercial operators as part of the youth adult card initiative and the nta is working closely with operators in order to achieve this as quickly as possible but i will certainly senator relay your concerns and that that you highlighted here today to minister ryan thank you