Dáil debates

Thursday, 16 February 2012

4:00 pm

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

My understanding is there has been a considerable number of complaints. The Minister of State will be aware of various media reports, both in print and on radio. As I understand it, many of the comments have mentioned an archaic and slow system. Many of the complaints relate to the online top-up system and fare issues. In spite of promises of an integrated system passengers are annoyed they cannot top up at railway stations as Iarnród Éireann does not provide a top-up facility. Although the cards can be topped up at the Luas ticket machines railway passengers must find a vendor in the proximity of train stations. That is not acceptable. In addition, a slow system does not allow online credit to be uploaded automatically and it can take in the region of 48 hours for credit to be ready for collection. This means some commuters must plan two days in advance. That is not adequate.

My concern is there seems to have been a desire on the part of the Government to launch the product notwithstanding the delays that were there - much of them rightly to ensure many of the issues that arise now would have been tweaked and resolved. There was a desire, of both Department and Government, to rush to the market to achieve certain milestones within a set number of days in power. As a result damage has been done to the viability of the project and this has annoyed a good number of commuters.

I look forward to the Minister of State giving an assurance to the House that the NTA, which I take it he identifies as the body responsible, will deal with this. Many of the photographs at the launch of the card did not include the chief executive of the NTA, but the Minister of State, and rightly so - we should take and accept political responsibility.

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