Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I also wish to speak about the NESC report on public transport. The Government's climate plan is pathetic when it comes to public transport. We need public transport anyway to deal with dire congestion. On many important bus routes, students and workers just cannot get on buses in the morning. In the context of a climate change emergency, the Government is doing nothing in response to the call by NESC, for example, for high quality and frequency of transport services.

I will outline how bad it is. Both Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus have fewer buses in their fleets than they did in 2008, which is shocking. We are going backwards. In the same period bus fares have increased by 80%. The demands on the public transport fleet have significantly increased in the intervening period. We have fewer buses nationally and in Dublin, bus fares have increased and we have the lowest subsidies for public transport almost anywhere in Europe. This contrasts with, for example, Luxembourg which is now introducing free public transport. Dunkirk has already introduced free public transport as has Estonia. Oslo has made a dramatic shift to cheaper better public transport. Interestingly it is now moving against electric vehicles, which is the centrepiece of this Government's transport plan, because it is not working. Instead Oslo is moving towards a dramatic increase in investment in the quality, frequency and affordability of public transport.

What does the Taoiseach have to say to that? In the last three budgets, we have proposed moving to free public transport, having subsidies for public transport at the level of the best in Europe and for a significant increase in the national and Dublin Bus fleet to improve the quality of bus services.

See this speech in context