Public Transport
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-18
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Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

I have spoken on the record of the House about the 6.50 a.m. train. The Deputy has raised it. Deputy Albert Dolan has raised it with me as well. That service is being retained, and I will relay that information. I am not sure how it got to the stage where there was uncertainty around it.
The broader point, which I have explained, is that about €1.6 billion is the operational cost of our public transport network across the board, most of that being PSO and fares. That is what it costs to run what we have, which is a greatly expanded public transport service, including Local Link services, trains and buses, right the way through our whole network. What I am doing now with the Ministers of State, Deputies Buttimer and Canney, is entering into the Estimates process for next year. Now that we have stabilised an increased service, which is good, and we have seen significant increases, we have a much higher base. We will seek additional funds for 2027 in order that we can roll out those additional services in 2027, subject to the NTA's service delivery plan. That is my intention.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-18