Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I thank Ms Graham and her team very much for being here. It is clear from her opening remarks that participation in public transport is back to pre-Covid levels and is higher than pre-Covid levels. All that success brings its own challenges. Occasionally on Twitter or X, one will see people queuing at bus stops, but their buses are going past them because they are already full. We all understand that there are occasional days on which this can happen, such as during an all-Ireland final, if a big concert is on, etc. Yet, how bad is the congestion, generally speaking? Are there capacity constraints every Monday morning and every Friday? That may not be the case on Mondays and Fridays because people are working from home then, but when are the problems? How is the NTA moving to resolve those problems?

Touching on that, we know that airlines charge different prices at different times. Have we looked into the idea of peak fares? I am not saying that the peak fares should be higher, but maybe the off-peak fare should be lower. Maybe the €2 fare could become €1.80 or €1.70, etc., at one time of the day rather than another. This could get people to consider getting the Luas at 7.45 a.m. rather than 8.15 a.m. It might spread things out a bit better. I do not know if this is feasible. This is a matter of making sure that the capacity that is in place is used better. Equally, there are times of the day and week when people will want to travel and this is about how we handle those challenges.