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Unread 21-06-2018, 13:01   #2
ACustomer
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 767
Default New Free Travel Row

The Indo is running a story about a suggestion from a senior civil servant that some peak-hour limitations be put on the use of the FTP: https://www.independent.ie/irish-new...-37032725.html

Let me state an interest: I am the holder of a FTP for seniors. However the over-the-top reaction from politicians is woeful. Provision of "free" travel outside peak hours costs operators almost nothing. Peak hours are an entirely different matter. Failure to recognise this and resorting to abusive comments about the civil servant (Robert Watt) shows what cowards we have in politics.

The minister for transport (a Mr Shane Ross, in case you thought he was minister for justice) also waxed indignant about the matter. He should know that failure of his department and also the dept of social protection to have a proper level of support for the FTP scheme is the main source of the problem. As far as I am aware, the allocation to the CIE group of companies is a lump sum, which has been constant or reducing for years (it may have increased in 2017/8). This is no way to run the scheme, which should reward providers on a usage basis.

This is the first thing I have seen Ross say about public transport for ages. Show what a poor minister he is, even by the undemanding standards of Irish politics.
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