FG: Private buses should join in free travel scheme

Fine Gael is calling on private bus operators to participate in the free travel scheme for the elderly.

The political party says that only 32 out of every 500 licences to private bus operators are offering the free travel scheme.

Fine Gael’s spokesman on Social and Community Affairs, Brian Hayes, has called on the Department of Public Enterprise not to issue licences to operators unless they promise to accept bus passes.

Deputy Hayes says Minister O’Rourke should remind the private bus business that the Department of Social Welfare would reimburse them if they promise to accept bus passes so that it should be a profitable undertaking by them.