Public Transport
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Pa Daly (SF), Kerry

I thank the Minister of State for the response. Will he please expand on his comment that child fares in several areas will be addressed? We in Sinn Féin believe that fares should be abolished completely for anybody up to 18 years of age. What exact areas does he mean?
The Minister of State also mentioned that, due to inflation, fares were 8% lower in real terms but what he failed to say was that, between 2008 or 2009 and 2016, there was an incremental increase in fares.
Will he give us a guarantee that there will be improved and better services as a result of these fare increases? I do not believe there will be. The fare increases clearly should not go ahead in a cost-of-living crisis. They should be put off for another time. The Government should be investing more in it. There has been a huge decrease in the amount of new services that have been implemented this year compared to last year. The Government did not even have a transport plan published for this year until around this time last year. It shows a lack of enthusiasm, a lack of initiative, and a lack of priority for public transport.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24