FREE NOW offers €250,000 in trips to transport vulnerable people to vaccination centres

Ride-hailing app FREE NOW has announced it is committing €250,000 of its €1 million European investment to help Ireland’s national effort to roll out the vaccine to the most vulnerable groups over the coming weeks.

The company says it has committed to support the transport of vulnerable people to vaccination centres across Ireland in line with the Government’s vaccine rollout.

People eligible for the vaccine will be able to avail of the FREE NOW support of €20 towards their visit to and from their nearest vaccine site.

The money will be redeemable by submitting FREE NOW receipts via a dedicated page on the FREE NOW website.

The support for vulnerable passengers will be available from 8th February.

The ride-hailing company is uniquely placed to offer this service as it already has partition screens in over 60% of its fleet, offering peace of mind to passengers.

This is the latest in a series of actions the company has taken to support with the COVID response, from creating the Medical fleet type to transport key workers at the height of the pandemic, to installing partition screens and handing out PPE to drivers who have been working throughout.

Currently, the Government is prioritising the vaccination of the most vulnerable groups across Ireland, including frontline workers and those aged 85 years+, to protect against COVID-19 to ensure they are protected.

The FREE NOW investment has been made to help encourage and support safe journeys to vaccination sites for the vulnerable, many of whom are older and may not have access to private transport.

Niall Carson, General Manager for FREE NOW Ireland said:

“It is so important that the most vulnerable people in Ireland are able to get vaccinated as soon as possible and part of this is ensuring they get to the vaccine centres quickly and safely.

“Taxi drivers have been keeping the country moving throughout the pandemic and this will be an extension of that.

“The sooner we can protect the vulnerable and have widespread roll out of the vaccine, the sooner we can all look ahead to Ireland’s recovery and a brighter future.”

Christopher Flynn, a taxi driver from Dublin said: “It has been a tough year for everyone and we all want to do our bit to help in the national roll out of the vaccine so we can get back to some kind of normal.”