Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)

The Minister of State is very welcome. Following on from the Leas-Chathaoirleach, I want to ask the Minister of State a little about the lower fare revenue performance. Passenger numbers are performing very well, with further growth expected, yet we have lower fare revenue performance and I would really like to understand why that is. It is a fairly significant supplementary amount of money the Department is looking for. I am a huge supporter of public transport. I take public transport. I got the train here today. I am one of those TDs who uses public transport. Unfortunately, however, in my area, instead of having lower fares, our fares have substantially increased. I am talking about Skerries and Balbriggan. We are not benefiting from the €2 fare. We are not benefiting from affordable and accessible public transport, as stated in the programme for Government, because our fares have substantially increased. I am a bit concerned. Our services have decreased. We have fewer train carriages. No new train carriages have been ordered since 2022 and the ones that have been ordered have not been delivered. There have been no new buses, either Dublin Bus or Bus Éireann, I understand, since 2022. We are putting a huge amount of money into the PSO levy but I am not seeing that in return for services, and my constituents are seeing it not in lower fares but in increased fares. The Minister of State might please give us a little more understanding as to why we are looking for such a huge increase in the Supplementary Estimate.