I want to raise the issue of reforming the existing tax saver commuter ticket to include shared mobility services and to recognise new work patterns like working from home, as has been proposed by several service providers. As the Minister of State knows, shared mobility is shared bikes, e-bikes and e-car share services that people can rent when they need them. It complements rather than replaces existing public transport by providing flexible transport options that connect people to destinations that fixed public transport routes simply cannot reach. The first mile and last mile of any journey are as important as the middle. We know there are people who would like to get public transport to work but the time it takes them to get from their house to the bus stop or station at either end of the commute can act as a disincentive. For many commuters, shared mobility provides that vital last-mile connection between the bus stop or train station and their home or work. For others, it offers a full-on, sustainable alternative to owning a private car for journeys that would otherwise have to be made by car. The potential is significant. Commercial bike sharing services last year delivered more than 600,000 journeys, while car sharing services facilitated over 500,000 journeys last year. These numbers are expected to grow substantially, with estimates suggesting that expanding car sharing alone could take demand for 300,000 private cars off our roads completely. The national policy statement on shared mobility was published last year. It highlights the OECD findings that shared mobility has enormous potential to reduce carbon emissions and support more sustainable travel, an ambition that we all support. However, the potential will only be realised if the sector receives the policy support that it needs. There are businesses operating on low-margin, high-cost models. We have already seen providers like TIER & Dott withdraw bike sharing services from Irish towns and cities, including Limerick and Navan, while Driveyou exited the Dublin car share market. If we fail to act, we risk further market failure and losing services that are essential to a more sustainable transport network. Last year, the national policy statement on shared mobility policy referenced the potential of introducing a shared mobility voucher but I understand the sector has recently been told that the option of a voucher is now off the table. If this is the case, there is another practical and achievable solution, and that is modernising the existing tax saver scheme. Quite simply, the existing tax saver model is no longer meeting the needs of today’s commuters. Participation has fallen dramatically. In 2019, there were about 60,000 users and that has fallen to 25,000 today. While initiatives like the 90-minute fare in Dublin have undoubtedly played a role, they do not fully explain this decline. The reality is that the tax saver model is built around an outdated model of commuting. It works best for people with fixed travel patterns and convenient access to traditional public transport, but we know that nowadays many workers split time between working from home and the workplace, and they rely on a combination of transport options to complete their journey. However, the tax saver scheme completely excludes shared bikes, car share services and other sustainable transport models, and it is not providing the incentive for a genuinely multi-modal travel model. It also remains very much focused on Dublin transport patterns. If we are serious about encouraging sustainable travel, the tax saver scheme must evolve. It needs to become more flexible, more inclusive and more reflective of how people travel today. As a first step, I ask that the Minister for Finance directs officials in his Department to undertake a review of the tax saver scheme.

Sentiment score: 0.23

I think we can all agree that commuting patterns have changed a lot since the Covid-19 pandemic and that idea of the rigid, five-day, ten-journey commute along the same route every day has disappeared for many workers. The tax saver scheme needs to change to reflect that new reality. Commuters want something that is more flexible, to reflect the fact that they are commuting in less regular patterns, but also to reflect the increased desire for multi-modal journeys. The idea of a flexible tax saver ticket that includes shared mobility is one that is worth exploring for these reasons. In the context of the forthcoming budget, I ask that the Department of Finance seriously look at reviewing the scheme and design a pilot programme to see how this type of flexible ticket might work in practice. As the Minister of State discussed earlier, it could be achieved through a digital wallet that allows commuters to assign a certain portion of their gross pre-tax income each month, which they could then use to purchase passes for different transport services on a flexible basis, depending on what modalities they needed and what particular days they need it for. It would require some additional digital infrastructure and planning, but it would achieve a lot of flexibility that the current system does not achieve. That is why I am proposing a pilot programme. I am not suggesting that we roll it out immediately, but a pilot programme would be the perfect way to explore how this might function and test the system before we undertake a full roll-out. I ask the Minister of State to bring this to the Department of Finance and her Government colleagues because we are losing people from the tax saver scheme at a dramatic rate and we have to do something dramatic to halt that.

Sentiment score: 0.23