Public Transport Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-04 ============================================================ Gareth Scahill (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Public transport should be simple, accessible and modern yet passengers on Bus Éireann services across the country are still required to carry cash. In 2026, that simply does not reflect how people live, travel and pay for services. Card and contactless payments should be accepted on board Bus Éireann services. Across Ireland, contactless payments have become the norm. Our Local Link services already accept card payments and, since 2022, all licensed taxi services have been legally required to take card payments. They also cannot charge an additional fee for providing that service. People now expect to be able to tap their card or pay with their phone for simple services. However, Bus Éireann passengers are still being told to download apps, buy Leap cards or carry cash. While very useful, those options do not work for everybody. Not every passenger has the app or a Leap card and fewer people are carrying cash. Bus Éireann Expressway services accept card payments, which means the technology and operational model already exist within the system, but the same convenience is not available to people who use the many standard Bus Éireann services throughout the country every day. This creates a real problem for passengers. Bus stops are often located in areas where ATMs or shops are not located nearby. This is especially a problem late at night. This issue has been raised with me, particularly in respect of people waiting in darkness in rural areas for a bus to come late at night only to be told they needed to carry cash to use the service. Drivers in this situation are often placed in a difficult position. They have to tell people they cannot take on them on the service or to allow them on board, asking them to get cash somewhere else when the bus next stops off. I acknowledge the fact that Bus Éireann drivers, especially those on rural services, are very accommodating with individuals, but they should not have to deal with this. At the same time, this also means that our Bus Éireann drivers on rural routes are carrying a significant amount of cash with them at all times, which potentially raises safety and security concerns for them. We know that a national contactless ticketing project is currently under way, with a roll-out expected in the coming years. That contract was awarded to a Dublin company in 2024 to replace the Leap card, yet I believe it is not until 2028 that we are expecting the roll-out of that system. While the progress is welcome, the questions that many customers and passengers are asking is why a basic payment option should take years to implement. With modern payment technologies, even a standard mobile device can process contactless transactions. Many small businesses and service providers adopt this quickly. It raises the question of whether an interim solution could be introduced much sooner while the larger system is still being developed. Public transport must evolve the way people live and travel. Accepting card payments on board buses is no longer a luxury; it is a basic expectation. It would improve accessibility for passengers, reduce the amount of cash drivers are carrying and ensure nobody is left standing on the side of the road waiting or wondering if they have change to pay for a bus. If the long-term system is still a number of years away, we should be asking whether a practical interim solution can be introduced now. In the modern transport system, paying for a bus journey should be the easiest part of the journey. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-04/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:43+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-04