Need to make transport bookings easier
Monaghan County Council is writing to the chief executive of Bus Éireann and Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien TD asking them to examine digital exclusion issues relating to public transport services.
At the Council’s April meeting, Cllr Noel Keelan (SF) proposed that the correspondence be sent, stating that some older people are being excluded from public transport because they did not have access to, or fluency in the use of, the internet, smartphones or credit/debit cards.
Cllr Seán Conlon (SF) said one of the harmful impacts of the shift towards digitalisation is that it is excluding and isolating so many people in society.
Cllr Keelan was responding to correspondence sent to the local authority by the Monaghan Age Friendly Council on access to public transport for non-digital service users. The letter was signed by the joint chairpersons of the Monaghan Older Persons Council, Lorraine Cunningham and Paddy Gollogly, and Monaghan Age Friendly Ambassador Seamus McDermott. The Age Friendly organisation is currently corresponding with the main Irish transport providers about the difficulties some older people, who don’t have the capacity or desire to access the internet, are experiencing in booking tickets and seats on public transport, which mostly has to be done online.
An important issue for older people is the retention of their mobility and independence for as long as possible, the Age Friendly Council stated, adding: “Less than 50% of Irish people over the age of 75 are using the internet. For many people, the digital world is not yet fully accessible. For others, it is not affordable. “We appreciate that age is one of the most significant predictors of digital exclusion, but other vulnerable people, such as those with a disability or on low incomes, also face being shut out from our increasingly digital world.”
The letter also highlighted that, since the Covid-19 pandemic, Bus Éireann has introduced a system whereby older people with a free travel pass have to book seats online and pay a €2 fee. “This is causing enormous problems for anyone who does not have a credit card, which is enabled to work online,” it pointed out, suggesting the system needs to be adjusted so older people could pay the €2 fee when they boarded public transport, or the fee be removed as the service is meant to be free.