Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
APPLICATIONS ARE NOW open for Irish 18-year-olds to apply for a free travel pass to explore the countries in the European Union.
The DiscoverEU initiative allows members of the European Union who are 18 years old to apply for one of 20,000 travel passes for travel around the EU later this year.
The aim of the scheme is to get young people interested in connecting with Europe.
Applications opened yesterday and will remain open until 16 May. Ireland has a quota of 189 passes.
Successful applicants can travel with up to four of their friends on their pass. To use the pass, people must travel between 1 August this year and 31 January of next year.
Anyone who travels is expected to be a “Discover EU Ambassador” and to “report back on your travel experiences through social media tools like Instagram, Facebook or Twitter using #DiscoverEU”.
This is the second round of the programme, which kicked off last year.
You can find out more about the initiative here
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Great scheme, but I think a more accurate headline would read, “Irish 18-year-olds can avail of 189 new free interrail tickets”.
@bopter:
Yes, if Ireland could avail of 20k, that could be a possible 2m within EU; rail network would fairly clog up, even if off peak.
Is India un the EU?
Could you not of used a picture of the thousands of trains that run on the EU network?
@Niall Farrell: *have
@Niall Farrell: that’s Connolly there, Dublin’s getting very diverse
@Niall Farrell: .. 20k and that picture. Sloppy!
@bill2345: nice one
@Niall Farrell: Sri Lanka actually.
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/colombo-sri-lanka-april-3-2018-1364454683?src=cMqTBZYoSSz8_ZSjDmPRWw-2-2
When are they doing it for 44 year old?
@Colm Lyons: guess who’s paying for it
@Tony Humphreys: The whole of EU is paying it? 20,000 train tickets costs nothing in the grand scheme of things.
These kids will still have to pay for accommodation, food entertainment, etc. along with the VAT in each country they visit anyway, which should recuperate the costs of the tickets. It’s not a completely free holiday they’re getting!
And nothing for us in our late 60s who kept Irish rail in business over the years and now have all the time in the world to travel to other European destinations are we older folk not Irish Europeans
@liam ward60: ye people get free bus passes
@liam ward60: It’s 189 made available to Ireland. You get free travel pass, think of all the lovely places around Ireland you can visit for free
@deise: Ignoramus
@liam ward60: Irish Rail isn’t financing these trips, it’s an EU initiative and a form of cheap advertising as the winners are expected to become ‘EU ambassadors’, posting frequently to social
Media. Nothing for people in their late 60s? Residents over 65 have free bus, Luas and rail travel plus additional free travel on cross-border services. Many countries across Europe have special fares for senior citizens. I’m in my 60s and certainly don’t begrudge a couple of hundred young people getting free tickets every year.
https://www.tripsavvy.com/senior-train-travel-discounts-in-europe-2972914
@liam ward60: You were moaning about being broke last week! Now you want to go on an EU holiday?
Is India in the EU?
Could you not of used a picture of the thousands of trains that run on the EU network?
@Niall Farrell: They would be in breach of GDPR if they use a file picture from Europe… All file pictures that media outlets now use are from outside the EU and thus avoiding GDPR rule and regulations.
@Humphrey Harold Haddington:
“All file pictures that media outlets now use are from outside the EU”
I don’t believe you.
@Humphrey Harold Haddington: that’s definitely not true
@Humphrey Harold Haddington: If that were the case can you explain all of the other photos of groups on the journal?
Or maybe they just used a stock photo without thinking to hard.
Occams razor.
I think that this is a fantastic scheme. I would have jumped at it when I was 18.
Wasted on 18 yr olds, they’ll spend more time looking at their phones than having a look around their destinations!
and an Indian railway station in the picture :D
Kids!! Take your mind away from the USC and have a train ticket.
@Ned Flanders: What is wrong with USC?
Does it include Indian trains now as well….
189 but each person awarded a pass can bring 4 of their 18 year old friends with them!
Fabulous. This is money well spent. It should be run every year. Great idea.
I imagine it’s pretty cheap to pay for as the trains run anyway and it’s 20k people outta 500million. Personally I’d like to see it means assessed as a lotta richer kids do it anyway as a right of passage. Saying that an inter-rail ticket for 7days travel in a thirty day period is €250. Not that difficult for a motivated teen to earn and save. Plenty of work about. 8000 vacancies in the hospitality sector, landscape gardeners have great difficulty finding staff…..
@Learned Chew: yeah let’s make it complicated and expensive to administer so they just don’t bother doing schemes like this.
Means testing a train ticket ffs.
Wow free passes for 18 year olds? Brilliant
149??? Bullsh!t
If they offer 20,000,000 tickets to UK they might stay in the EU.
*189*
have your say