Departmental Budgets
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Aidan Farrelly (SD), Kildare North

Those policies are working because the fare points are right. We know that increased fares reduce passenger numbers. The Government has made a decision in the last couple of weeks that it knows will be tantamount to a reduced level of service demand at a time when we have climate and affordability crises and at a time when the Department is not rolling out new services. They are facts. Absolutely, there is €900-odd million being allocated and I commend the Department for that, but ultimately it has been levied with a bill by the Department of public expenditure. To me, it is being bullied by that Department into having to pay for the Department of education's overspend.
What I am asking the Minister of State for is not a conversation about a decision that the Government is going to make in the budget. I am asking him to tell us what planning has happened as to where that €18 million will come from. The Department has that decision made already. I have to expect that, given the months the Department has had to plan this - this has been going around an awful long time - the Minister of State knows where this expenditure is going to come from. What I am looking for is detail to ensure that no public transport services suffer, and no further public transport fare increases happen, because of it.

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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