Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)

In an ideal world we would not be contemplating fare increases. Given the costs associated with the various companies, many of which are fixed, and in the light of the price of fuel, there is an inevitability to the imposition of fare increases. However, as the Deputy has acknowledged on previous occasions, there is a way of mitigating the impact of these increases through use of the leap card. We have purposely differentiated the fares in order to encourage more people to use public transport and thereby lower the costs relating to the various companies into the future.

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