Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy that we need to make public transport cheaper. It is a difficult balancing act because there is a whole variety of ways in which we need to make it cheaper. As I mentioned earlier, the Connecting Ireland new public transport service for rural Ireland is a hugely progressive development. That needs new money and additional public service obligation, PSO, subvention. It needs the Exchequer to be able to provide. We are already very tight on the PSO. How exactly we make the finances work and how we do this is a critical issue. I would be arguing that we should do this. The Deputy can mention it to the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, in his conversations in advance of the budget later this year. I would be very happy to support it.

There is one thing to flag among all the difficulties. I have been one of the first to be upfront in saying that we are not going fast enough and that things are not working as well as I would like. One thing we should not ignore is that prior to the Covid pandemic, public transport numbers were going up steeply. There was a huge demand, despite the price problems that do exist and particularly for families in the circumstances like that. While I do not have the exact figures here, across the board Irish Rail numbers were increasing in almost double digits per year. It was the same in the bus services. The more this gets better, the better the chance of bringing down public transport fares. We want to build a virtual circle of success.