9. 7. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Concessionary Bus and Rail Travel for Young People

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:14 pm on 18 October 2017.

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Photo of Darren Millar Darren Millar Conservative 5:14, 18 October 2017

I will explain where I’m at with costings in a second, if you’ll sit down please, because I think it’s really important that the one significant objection that some Members seem to have is around the funding. So, let me go into a little bit of detail on our funding and how we’ve costed these proposals. First of all, can I just say that your suggestion, Rhianon Passmore, about the fact that if we scrap EMA it’s going to push up the number of people who are not in education, employment or training is wrong, because, actually, Wales has a higher rate of NEETs than England, which does not have EMA at all? You mentioned, Jeremy Miles, about the fact that 26,000 people currently benefit from EMA, and you’re absolutely right, but our proposals would benefit 360,000, not just 26,000, and as you will know from speaking to individuals in your own constituency, EMA awards can be extremely divisive amongst young people in educational establishments, and there’s a divide between those who get it and those who don’t.

So, let me just explain why I think this is an affordable policy. Your costings, Cabinet Secretary, have been based on the mytravelpass scheme that currently operates, which, frankly, is an extraordinarily expensive scheme. I cannot see how it is costing the Welsh taxpayer quite so much money. For the figures for the financial year to 2017, there were 15,000—. There were 9,000—just let me get the figures here—there were 9,250 beneficiaries of that scheme at a cost of £9.743 million. That means that the cost of mytravelpass per beneficiary is £1,053 a year. Now, in anybody’s mind, that’s extraordinarily expensive: £1,053 per year to get a third off your bus passes, when you can actually buy a bus pass for a whole year in my area for £490 a year at a commercial price. I think that’s an extraordinarily expensive scheme and I’m yet to see any explanation as to why it’s costing the Welsh taxpayer quite that much. [Interruption.] I’m very happy to take an intervention.