5. What action is the Welsh Government taking to encourage young people to use public transport? OAQ53476

Llywydd, from 1 March, any young person aged between 16 and 21 will be able to apply for discounted bus travel in Wales. From January of next year, Transport for Wales will extend free rail travel to under-11-year-olds. Both of these initiatives will help create the public transport users of the future.

Diolch. Thank you, First Minister. The transport and economy Minister, Ken Skates, joined students in Wrexham last week to celebrate the announcement of the popular mytravelpass young person's discount scheme. Since the scheme began in 2014, there have been a total of 20,953 pass holders and an estimated 1,344,000 discounted journeys in 2017-18. First Minister, can you inform me when we can ascertain the participation levels in Islwyn itself and how, in the future, the Welsh Government can further enhance the reach of this important and highly positive initiative?

I thank the Member for that supplementary question and for pointing to those quite remarkable figures that she mentioned—the over 1,300,000 discounted journeys that took place as a result of the mytravelpass initiative in 2017-18. In the few days since the launch by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport last week of applications for the new and extended pass, over 500 applications have been received, and I will be sure that my colleague will look at ways in which we will be able to disaggregate that data and let Members around the Chamber know of how the pass is being used in their own constituencies.

Finally, Darren Millar.

Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, back in 2017, my party put forward some very clear proposals for free bus travel, not generous bus travel in the way that you're proposing, which is just a discount, but a much more generous scheme to enable those between 16 and 24 to travel free of charge on the bus network. You at that time described it as 'fantasy, fag-packet economics', but the reality is, of course, that the policy was adopted by the UK Labour Party shortly afterwards, and they are now advocates of the scheme. Given that this is a programme that is fully costed, good for young people, good for public transport and good for the environment, won't you take another look at our scheme and our proposals, which also extend discounts to the rail network as well for those 16 to 24-year-olds, many of whom have no other alternative other than to use the buses because of the rising costs of insurance premiums on their motor vehicles?

Well, Llywydd, I'd be prepared to look at the Member's proposals provided he can do two things: first of all that he will provide costs that are reasonable and reliable, and secondly that he will tell me where in the Welsh Government he proposes I take the money from in order to pay for his new idea.

I thank the First Minister.