Call for €12 charge to be brought in if Limerick students drive car to college

A COUNCILLOR has suggested that students who drive to college in Limerick every day pay a financial charge to encourage them onto public transport instead.

Adare Fianna Fail member Bridie Collins was speaking during a discussion on student travel.

She believes by getting students onto public transport early in life, they will stick with it in the future.

“If we want people to use public transport we need to start with our students. If they get into the habit of using public transport, they will do for the rest of their lives.”

Councillor Collins, who chairs the economic committee, wants public transport to be free for those studying in higher and further education in a bid to improve the environment and get them into the habit of not using a car.

“We need to discourage the use of the private car,” she said at this month’s full council meeting.

It comes with traffic particularly heavy around Limerick’s third level colleges now that students have returned for the new academic year.

She seconded, and spoke in favour of a resolution brought forward by Fine Gael councillor Sarah Kiely that local authority members write to Transport Minister Eamon Ryan, Transport for Ireland (TFI) and Irish Rail to ask the decision to no longer accept third-level ID to avail of discounted fares be reversed.

As a last resort, she feels students should be asked to pay a €12 charge if they use a motorised vehicle to get to university. But she acknowledged that public transport can be difficult, especially from rural Ireland.

A €12 charge would mirror the controversial ULEZ system in London, which sees drivers of vehicles facing a charge if they don’t meet certain emission standards when they enter the British capital.

But it's not clear how any system like this would work in practice, or who would be liable to collect the charge.

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Her own party colleague, Cllr Kevin Sheahan disagreed with her call.

He said: "A €12 charge just because you have a car? I think you need to rethink that one!”

He accused Cllr Collins of “trying to get a headline”.

Patrickswell councillor Dan McSweeney, a student up to May and relied on his car, described her remarks as “disappointing.”

“We as a country are not ready. We have poor public transport which would not have the ability to replace the car. We also must understand that many students in college are struggling to pay for different things financially, and we need to support students as much as we can,” he said.