Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising this matter.

Under the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008, as amended by the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009, the National Transport Authority is responsible for determining fares on publicly funded bus and rail services. I have no role in the setting of public transport fares. It is the responsibility of the NTA to adjudicate on applications from the CIE companies and the Railway Procurement Agency for fare increases or changes. On 28 October the NTA issued its 2015 fares determinations for Luas and the CIE companies - covering monthly and annual tickets, cash fares, Leap card fares and pre-paid tickets. In contrast to a trend of reducing public service obligation allocations in recent years, I have ensured the level of PSO subvention for bus and rail services will be maintained in 2015 at current levels.

The maintenance of subsidy funding for public transport in 2015 at current levels has enabled the NTA to moderate the fare increases necessary in order that the operators can, as far as possible, maintain the current level of services and respond to sectors where demand is growing and capacity needs to be increased. The NTA has continued its plans to increase use of the Leap card integrated ticket by keeping fare increases to a minimum on the card when compared to cash. In fact, even with the fare increases approved by the NTA, a Leap card fare in 2015 will nearly always be the same as or lower than the cash fare was in 2012. There are now over 750,000 Leap cards in circulation and almost €2 million per week used in travel credit, which provides evidence of the convenience and value it offers to the travelling public. I emphasise again that the Leap card fare in 2015 will be almost always the same or lower as the cash fare three years ago.

Before the end of the year the NTA will introduce a second- ourney discount on Dublin Bus Leap card fares. This will be further rolled out to cover all PSO operators in 2015. This will reduce the cash penalty currently paid by a person who is required to change buses to make a trip from A to B. Also, an off-peak reduction in Luas fares has been introduced for Leap card users, as the cash fares for peak and off-peak have been merged. The NTA aims to increase Leap card use to simplify fare payments, improve bus journey times and cross-mode transfers. It has also incorporated a wide-ranging structural review of fares across and between all operators, with a view to simplifying and streamlining fares to encourage increased use of public transport by removing some of the confusion around anomalous and illogical fares and pricing.

I understand that for people who are paying cash fares, this represents an increase, and I understand that we are asking people to pay more in a time when they have less income available to do that. However, the payments they are making are going directly towards maintaining the level of public service available at present on our buses, Luas trams and trains, and it is giving our public transport companies the best capacity possible to provide a better service in the future.

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