Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 provides a statutory power to the NTA to establish a fare structure for public passenger transport services. Following the establishment of the NTA in 2009, the authority has responsibility for the regulation of fares charged to passengers in respect of public transport services, provided under PSO contracts. Bus Éireann is responsible for setting passenger fares relating to its commercial Expressway bus services. The NTA does not have a role in the setting of fares for services provided by commercial operators, including Bus Éireann. As a result, fares charged to passengers on Expressway and PSO services are set independently of each other.

Over a number of years, the NTA's approach to fare regulation has been to gradually simplify the fare structures across bus, rail and light rail services and to increasingly move towards a fairer, distance-based structure. The NTA points out in its more recent fares determinations, that fares are adjusted both upwards and downwards, ensuring the travelling public pays a fare relative to the distance they travel, such that the operators are in a position to provide a safe and reliable service. For 2020, the NTA set fares by way of two determinations. The first determination made adjustments for all monthly and annual tickets, including tax saver tickets, with an implementation date of 1 December 2019. The second fares determination addressed adjustments for all other fares with changes effective from April 2020. These determinations have further progressed the NTA's fares policy objectives.

I agree with the Deputy on the point that we must go further and do more because there are anomalies right across the country that are regularly brought to my attention. In some cases, the fare suddenly jumps up once a person travels outside a certain zone and it is not done on the basis of distance. I will talk to the NTA and Bus Éireann and see what we can do to progress that simple mechanism whereby there is a correlation between distance and fare structures, so we do not have these anomalies where fares suddenly jump once people go beyond a certain boundary limit.

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