Free travel card is not so smart at journey’s end

IN response to Declan Cullen (Letters, September 17), I honestly think he is mistaken about smart cards and the social welfare free travel scheme.

All the companies, either in the private or sublic sector, that are part of the scheme receive payment from the department which is quite rightly (even if belatedly) trying to protect the taxpayers’ money. I agree the vast majority of recipients of state benefits are honest, but I know from my own experience there is a huge amount of fraud in the free travel scheme. While it will be easy to trace where a passenger boards a vehicle it will be impossible to say whether he or she alighted at point B or point Z as cards will only be scanned at point of entry.

Tony McMahon