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

I recognise the importance of incentivising our young people to use public transport to establish sustainable habits from an early age. Setting public transport fares at appropriate levels is a key element to achieving this objective. The Deputy will be aware that a suite of measures is being introduced by Government to help with the rising cost of living, including a 20% average fare reduction on public service obligation, PSO, public transport services until the end of 2022.

Currently, on all PSO public transport services, child fares are available to young people aged between 16 and 18 when paying with a personalised Leap card. For those paying with cash, the child fare is only applicable to those under 16. As such I strongly encourage those in the 16- to 18-year-old bracket to apply for their personalised Leap cards, which can be done easily on leapcard.ie. Further, the NTA previously introduced a single flat fare that allows those 18 and under with Leap cards to travel any distance on Dublin Bus, Luas and all DART and commuter rail services within the Dublin area for 80 cent. This represents a 20 cent reduction on the previous Leap fares.

From 9 May, the child fare rate on PSO services will reduce even further to 65 cent for the remainder of this year, due to the introduction of the 20% average cost-of-living fare reduction. Child Xpresso fares and child cash fares will likewise benefit from the 20% discount. Leap fares in Dublin are also included in the 90-minute fare initiative, enabling children to transfer to another mode of public transport without incurring additional costs within 90 minutes of initially tagging on.

The NTA is working hard to ensure that appropriate fares are available for young people on our PSO services. Paired with the significant increase in investment in vehicles and infrastructure, we continue to make public transport a more attractive means of travel. Finally, with the ongoing roll-out of BusConnects across Dublin and regional cities, it is intended that passenger fares will be further streamlined and rationalised as part of this process.

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