Dublin: Commuters who use annual tax-saver Leap cards on public transport have till the end of the yr to say refunds stretching again to April, the National Transport Authority has confirmed.
The authority accepts that many commuters are continuing to pay for their cards by way of automatic wage deductions even though they’ve been working from the house for months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some 17,000 annual tax-saver tickets to the worth of more than €17 million had been refunded up till November 25th, the most recent date for which figures were available.
The authority is providing extensions to the validity of the cards for months missed due to journey restrictions as well as money refunds where requested by commuters and utilized through their employers’ schemes.
For those who don’t apply for a cash refund, their cards will probably be extended for the period of time they’ve been unused since April 1st.
Backdated
Refunds are also backdated to April, which suggests the €17 million already refunded was spread over lower than eight months. On a pro-rata foundation this may suggest demand for refunds is prone to amount to about €19 million by December 31st. However, it may very well be considerably more than that as commuters transfer to handle the problem earlier than the end of the yr.
The refunds will probably be paid with the help of an increase in subsidy supplied by the exchequer by way of the Division of Transport. The exchequer can be undertaking to cowl the shortfall in fares collected because of the pandemic.
According to the authority, Dublin Bus processed 3,769 purposes for refunds by November 25th, Irish Rail processed 10,228, Bus Éireann processed 342 and Luas processed 2,800. The amounts involved were €3.9 million in relation to Dublin Bus, €11.3 million for Irish Rail, €528,411 for Bus Éireann, and €1.5 million for Luas.
