Public Transport
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Seán Canney (IND), Galway East

I will give the Deputy a few examples of the reduction in the new fares for children. In regional cities like Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford, the new reduced fare is 33% of the equivalent fare. In town services like those in Athlone, Balbriggan, Clonmel, Drogheda, Dundalk and Kilkenny, child fares are cut to 50 cent. These are facts. What I said about fares being 8% lower than what they were eight years ago is also a fact.
The Deputy asked about improving services. This year, we have spent €941 million in delivering PSO services. If we look at the increased number of people using public transport, that is because we have been increasing the offer in terms of public transport. Looking at what we will be doing over the next number of years with BusConnects, the all-island rail review extending train services, putting in passing loops to create more frequency, and looking at train stations to be able to take that capacity, we have a very good news story here in public transport and what we are doing with it. What we need to do is continue that trajectory, which we will do.

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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