By Adam Stynes

A recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General found that the Department of Social Protection paid a staggering €92.6 million to cover the costs of free travel. 

The report found that there was over one million people recorded as having been entitled to free travel at the end of the last year, an increase of 39% over the last decade.  

Around the country one in five free travel cards that are being used have expired but are being accepted by public transport, due to an issue with replacement cards being sent out. Since June 1^st 17% of the cards around the country are said to be expired. 

The C&AG report revealed that there a system that was established to show how many free travel passengers have been reported by the operators that happened from unannounced inspections.  

In terms of spot checks being done within the system to make sure everything is up to standards, since 2021 there hasn’t been a single spot check carried with these cards and in the last eight years only seven spot checks have been conducted. 

 The last two spot checks were done in 2021 by an anonymous report, two routes were ceased, and the operator was removed from the scheme.  

In 2023, 73% of the scheme expenditure – or  67.5 million – was paid to the National Transport Authority and Bus Eireann. This was based on estimated usage of transport by free travel card holders.  

Less than 5% of the total scheme expenditure of 92.6 million paid in 2023 was based on actual usage data, according to the report.  

The Department of Social Protection got a recommendation from the C&AG which they told them to work with people who use free travel scheme operators.  

The recommendation was to make a payment system for these operators based on journeys undertaken by people with public services card holders that have free travel cards for people over the age of 65. 

The report conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General says that the data is outdated in as there hasn’t been a spot check since 2017.  Most of the data used in this report is an estimate of the amount of usage of free travel cards. A draft report from the Department of Social Protection on an alternative funding model for free travel operators will hopefully be available before the end of the coming year.  

The City.ie spoke to Francis Stynes who is an elderly person who benefits from using the free travel cards on a weekly basis.  

 “Over the course of the last few years I’m not surprised to see that much money being paid by the social protection with people who use free travel passes. “he said.  

Francis says that it’s shocking that so few spot checks have been conducted since 2021. “There should be a minimum of 5 a year when it comes to these situations,” he said.  

Francis believes that more cooperation is needed between the Department of Social Protection and the travel operators to ensure more accurate data is available.