Public Transport Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-04 ============================================================ Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir Scahill as ucht an rúin seo a chur roimh an Teach. It is a very important issue and I am taking the matter on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy O'Brien. The programme for Government is committed to the rolling out of contactless fare payments on all public transport and to keeping fares low and affordable. It is important to stress that contactless fare payments, or next generation ticketing, will be introduced initially as part of BusConnects Dublin before being delivered nationwide, including on Bus Éireann services. The Senator is right. People expect the service to be reliable, accessible and modern and I fully concur with him that many people now do not carry cash, but use cards instead. It is important to stress that many public transport users have travelled the world and have engaged with other systems where contactless ticketing is in operation and in use. The Senator spoke about the whole Local Link service. That has been a huge success. I assure the Senator that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and the Department and Government, along with the stakeholders, are making, and will continue to make, significant efforts to implement the next generation ticketing across the country over the coming years. The Minister and the Department have made significant funding available to support the move to new ticketing technology, and the National Transport Authority has entered into a contract with a Spanish technology company, Indra Sistemas, to deliver the project. The Minister met with the company in January at its new Dublin headquarters. During the visit, he emphasised the importance of this project and the desire of all public transport users - as articulated and outlined by the Senator here - and of Government to see it implemented without delay. Last week, we had questions on this particular matter in the Dáil. This modern solution will introduce contactless payments for passengers via bank cards, mobile phones and barcodes across all public transport modes nationwide that are subsidised by the State. It will replace the Leap card system, which has served over 9 million users since its launch in 2011. The initial focus of this project is on the greater Dublin area. It will be rolled out across four phases, with phase 1 due to be launched in the summer of 2027. This will test contactless payments on new validators or ticket machines. Phase 2, as the Senator said, will be launched in 2028, allowing passengers on Dublin Bus and Luas services to use this new ticketing technology, including contactless payments, on validators. Plans for later phases remain under development at the moment. I share the Senator's view that it is taking far too long. There is a frustration felt by many of us in government because the old legacy system is difficult to maintain and is at the end of its life. The Senator is right that people have moved on. The world has evolved. Separately, the NTA is actively rolling out contactless payments across the TFI Local Link, with regular services allowing passengers to pay for single journeys via debit and credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. This system is being deployed across all 15 TFI Local Link offices, with the full cohort to be done by the end of this year. As Minister of State with responsibility for rural transport, I pay tribute to the Local Link offices and the services being provided, particularly those we are talking about here with contactless payments making it easier for people from Laois, Offaly, Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim. Under budget 2026, a funding package of €940 million was secured for PSO, and TFI Local Link received a 43% increase from last year. This will further support subsidised bus and rail services across Ireland, while maintaining targeted fares, including initiatives such as the recently introduced free travel for children up to the age of nine, and young adult cards for those aged 19 to 25, as part of the NTA's national fares strategy. To conclude, I thank Senator Scahill for the points he has made. It is incredibly frustrating. We need to move quicker and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, shares that view as well. --- 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