An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-16
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Barry Ward (FG), Dún Laoghaire

In April 2022, I was pleased to support the cut in public transport fares in the aftermath of Covid by between 20% and 50%, depending on what kind of ticket passengers were using. At that time, the rationale was expressed that lower fares made public transport more attractive and more accessible and, therefore, more people used it. That is obviously desirable. It now seems that the Government is suggesting that is not the case or that there is not an evidence-based approach that suggests that lower fares allow more people to use public transport. The reality is that there are ancillary benefits to more people using public transport, such as reductions in emissions and congestion, etc. What is the evidence base for this decision that will lead to a significant increase of 15% in public transport fares? Is this something we could mitigate in some other way?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-16