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

I ran out of time before I was able to answer that question. I agree with the Deputy that the transformation of public transport has to be for the whole country. We could introduce a new flexi-ticket within the urban Dublin area, for example, very quickly because we have the Leap card and the swipe-on, swipe-off on the Luas. The difficulty is that we do not have that with the longer distance commuting services. I have to listen to the reality that the officials meet, which is that they have a difficulty in adapting when they do not have that swipe-on, swipe-off facility in the rural train or bus stations. Similarly, I believe rural public transport will be key. The Connecting Ireland new rural public transport system will also be key. However, I have to be honest with the Deputy. We have to face the reality before us. We do not regulate those non-PSO services.

We do not monitor or manage those non-PSO services or have control as to how they manage cash or other ticket systems. This presents real difficulties which we are looking to resolve. It will not be done in the same timeframe or as quickly or as easily as we can on the PSO services where we do have these systems in place.

See this speech in context