The column below appears in this week's INM Irish regional newspapers.
By Michael Commane
When you have to live on borrowed money, as we now do, it is difficult to have to swallow some of the criticisms our “benefactors” make of the way we run our affairs. Our “free travel” scheme for older citizens has been something of which we have been justly proud. And when outside lenders tell us our older citizens need to suffer a bit more, before our financial sins are forgiven, this can be very hard to take. But before we let our indignation run away with us, perhaps we should pause and take stock.
For over three years I made a weekly rail journey between Dublin and Tralee. I was working three days a week in Dublin and the other two days in Kerry.
There were many tickets on option. I could buy a five-day return which was approximately €75; a monthly return was around €83. I could also have bought an annual tax saver ticket which would make sense if I was sure I would be making the journey every weekend. And, if I remember correctly, the single fare was something like €68.00. Of course that made no sense at all.
Occasionally I managed to buy a return ticket on the internet for €22 but that meant booking well in advance.
The media has been far too gentle to Irish Rail on its recent fare hike and ticket structure change.
Over the period of time I got to know a number of rail personnel and naturally observed what life is like on the railway.
One thing is sure and that is that rail travel is not cheap but it is heavily subsidised and that means the taxpayer is paying large sums to keep the trains rolling.
We are living in extraordinarily difficult financial times so any way or means the Government has of saving money, then good for them.
I have been on too many trains watching people travel for free.
Before another word, I am extremely grateful to Charlie Haughey and his wife for introducing the 'free pass'. My late father availed of it for the best part of 30 years.
It really was fantastic. He would never have made all those journeys from Heuston to Tralee had he not got his free pass.
I'm just three years away from eligibility for the magic card and of course I am now getting very perplexed that it will be scrapped before I make it to that age, hoping of course, that I will be around for another few years.
Nevertheless, for the life of me I cannot understand why newspaper owners, bishops, archbishops, provincials, former high ranking civil servants, business people should be allowed travel for 'free' while at the same time the State coffers are worse than empty.
And then there is another category of 'free ticket' that mesmerises me. I have seen the fittest of people travel on 'free disability passes'.
I have seen checkers throw their eyes to heaven and comment that it really is a joke the number of 'free' passengers who are using the railway.
There is the whole plethora of staff and people who are in the most tenuous ways connected with the railway who get free passes. It really is a terrible Irish joke.
I can see and hear people say how cruel I am - how dare I take such a wonderful benefit from the old and vulnerable.
By all means, every benefit to elderly and genuinely poorer people should be kept in place if at all possible. But the idea that bishops, provincials, former high ranking civil servants, newspaper barons can travel for 'free' at the expense of the hard pressed taxpayer is simply a madness.
I know a man who has a free pass on the strength of a stab wound he received to his neck. There is no sense to that.
Before a hatchet job is done on the free travel scheme now is the time to do a root and branch study on who is travelling for free and how can the State make a saving without hurting the real poor and those who are fragile and vulnerable.
And before the State makes any decision I suggest Minister Varadkar sit down and talk to the few checkers who are left on the railway and ask them for their views on the issue.
I am often struck, especially in the case of the railway, how the people who run it on a daily basis are never asked for their ideas and opinions and how to make savings and improve operations.
Why not issue pensioners an annual card, which might cost €50 or €60 per year. Maybe a standard €10 for journeys over 160 km. But unlimited free travel might well be too generous right now. Someone has to pay for it and the PAYE taxpayer is paying enough.
I well know we live in a State and are part of a society. We are not just an economy. But if the State and society is to flourish then we can't have crazy customs and odd practices.
If someone tells me I will not get unlimited free travel I'll be annoyed but really, that's not the issue.
There is no real independence without economic independence. If we duck the hard decisions, we cannot complain too much when others make them.
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6 comments:
Michael, I can see the sense in what you say but I disagree with your conclusions. I think that we need to differentiate between OAP free travel and other free travel. I believe that OAP free travel should be kept. It applies, of course, to buses as well as trains. It is a small recognition from the state of the contribution they have made over their working lives.
Trains are expensive. We have not invested in the requisite infrastructure. Time tabling is a joke. Quality of service is often poor. Nonetheless, once the train is running it saves nothing to prevent OAPs travelling ( a marginal amount perhaps given that engine efficiency is related to carriage weight but I suspect the OAP to unloaded weight ration is pretty high).
I have much greater concerns about the issue of fairness. Dublin has the DART, LUAS, regional trains and a frequent bus service, all very heavily subsidised by the tax payer. Where I live there is a bus twice a day at times which do not assist workers. So I have no choice but to drive and now am increasingly penalised by fuel tax to subsidise public transport. I realise there is an efficiency to mass transit. If that is the sole argument, however, then we might as well scrap intercity train services altogether as they are hardly justified by the numbers.
This is related to the concept of universal provision: the state must treat all it's citizens equally. You pay the same for electricity in Tralee as in Terenure. This should also apply to public transport and all public provision. The closing of Ennis hospital means that a person living in West Clare must drive the equivalent of Limerick to Naas over lousy roads. So much for parity of esteem.
Perhaps the fairest thing to do is to scrap all subsidies and charge full cost to all users of all provisions (outlawing private health insurance in the process - imagine what that would do if we all had to use the identical health service!).
I don't know if the are many OAPs who abuse free travel, but I would say it is a tiny minority, justice should prevail, not European economics.
Michael
As always, a thought provoking article.
I also think that you've reached the wrong conclusion. I think free travel should be offered to anyone, of any nationality, over the age of 65, as long as travel was taken outside rush hour. This would encourage tourism and ensure that load factors were a little better balanced.
Please ignore the it's instead of its in my earlier comment: apple's autocorrection at work.
It's fine. Thank you for your comment.
Yes, the idea of fre travel outside peak hours is a good one. It was originally an aspect of the free travel scheme.
I hope there will be a discussion on the issue and good thinking will win out.
I disagree with those comments. What about people with a mental illness or an injury that's not physically visible. At any age certain people need free travel. Public transport discriminate against these people. I have seen it. Their a joke. This paper is a joke for allowing his remarks to be printed.
If that is how the reader has perceived what was said, then please, apologies.
Once a person has been deemed with a disability then of course they are entitled to free travel.
The piece was trying to highlight on abuses that are in the system.
Again, please accept my apologies.
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