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

Notwithstanding the fact that the NTA is responsible for determining fares in respect of publicly funded bus and rail services and the fact that I have no role in the setting of public transport fares, I am aware that the changes in bus and rail fares recently announced will cause hardship for many commuters in this city and across the country. I am also aware that they may lead to some questioning the value of public transport.

As the Deputy knows, 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 prepaid tickets. 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 with 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. More than 750,000 Leap cards are in circulation and almost €2 million per week is used in travel credit, which is strong evidence of the convenience and value that Leap cards offer to the travelling public.

In contrast to a trend of reducing public service obligation, PSO, allocations in recent years, I have ensured the level of PSO subvention for rail and bus services is being maintained in 2015 at current levels. The maintenance of subsidy funding for public transport at current levels has enabled the NTA to moderate the fare increases necessary so the operators can maintain as far as possible the current level of services and also can respond to sectors where demand is growing and capacity needs to be increased.

The cost of public transport is one of the reasons I was very keen to ensure we stop cutting the level of public subvention to the CIE companies and why, I hope, we will start to see that level of funding start to grow again from 2016. Coupled with increased passenger numbers in the future, I fully expect to see such fare increases become a far less frequent occurrence in the future.

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