Should five-year-olds need a special Leap Card to travel on public transport for free?

Kids aged five to eight can now travel on public transport for free with a special Leap Card.

But to get this Leap Card, a parent must go to the Leap Card website and apply for one, submitting their passport or other ID, and their child’s birth certificate.

Requiring this amount of documentation makes Thomas O’Connor, assistant general secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) uneasy, he says.

Making parents of kids five to eight upload documents and get and use special Leap Cards is “overkill”, and carries data protection risks, O’Connor says. 

The data is highly sensitive, costly to process and protect, and could be a target for identity theft, he says.

O’Connor also said that operating the verification system diverts public money, and staff, away from actually improving bus and rail services. 

A spokesperson for the  National Transport Authority (NTA) says the process uses the same age-verification system already in place for student and young-adult cards. 

“As the 5–8 card uses existing technology and infrastructure, there was relative minor costs for the application system,” she said. “The only additional costs are for verifying, processing, and posting the cards.”

The age-verification system is needed because it’s not realistic for drivers or ticket inspectors to guess whether a child is eight or nine – and on that basis whether they must pay a fare or face a fine, said the spokesperson.  

But kids under five can travel free without a Leap Card. 

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First announced in October 2024, as part of Budget 2025, the scheme is expected to benefit more than 230,000 children, according to the Department of Transport.

The card works on Dublin Bus and Go Ahead routes in Dublin, the Luas, Irish Rail, and more. 

Kids with these cards must be accompanied by an adult with a valid ticket, and must tag on and off, the rules say.

Parents with a few kids can only apply for a card for one of them at a time, then wait until that is processed before applying for the next, the rules say.

Without the Leap Cards for kids five to eight, drivers would be left policing children’s ages, “almost like a barman checking IDs”, which he said would be unfair on them, says Ted Leddy, a Fine Gael councillor in Fingal. Requiring documentation was the right way to do it, he said. 

But O’Connor, of the NBRU, suggested that schools could be used to verify ages instead, to avoid creating a “quasi-ID system” for young children like this. 

The new system is cumbersome, but ultimately worth it for parents, says Feljin Jose, the Green Party’s spokesperson on transport, and a Dublin city councillor. 

His main problem with it is that it took so long to roll out, he says. It was announced almost a year ago, but only launched this month. “It shouldn’t take that long to bring these things in,” he said.

Jose also said parents should be allowed to get two Leap Cards for one child, for when custody is split between parents or when a child moves between households.

Cat O’Driscoll, a Social Democrats councillor on Dublin City Council, says she supports the idea of getting children used to buses and trams early. 

And she doesn’t mind the age-verification process that’s been put in place. “If you have a tall, a very tall, seven year old, are they going to have to ask questions? We don't expect children to carry ID,” O’Driscoll said. 

The reliability of public transport, and having enough space for prams and wheelchairs, are bigger issues for parents than doing some paperwork to get free travel, O’Driscoll said. She said she’d like to see free travel extended to all under-18s.

Leddy, the Fine Gael councillor, said the savings from the introduction of free travel for five- to eight-year-olds would be significant for families with two or three children, and might free up money to spend in local shops.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.