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

The Government is strongly committed to helping to combat the cost-of-living rises experienced throughout the country. As part of the suite of new measures being introduced, a 20% average fare reduction on all PSO public transport services is being made available nationwide until the end of the year. The discounted fares will benefit the hundreds of thousands of people across the country who use PSO public transport every day. The Government allocated €54 million in Exchequer funding to provide this measure; however, this funding does not include an extension of the scheme to commercial operators, such as the Expressway services from Cork to Tralee and Cork to Limerick referred to in the Deputy's question.

Bus Éireann Expressway is a commercially run business that operates in competition with private, commercial operators in the licensed bus market. As such, decisions related to fares are made directly by the company itself. However, in recognition of the importance of incentivising young people to use public transport, I was delighted as part of budget 2022 to secure funding to provide for the introduction of a young adult card, YAC, on both PSO and commercial services. This exciting initiative will entitle anyone between the ages of 19 and 23 to discounted travel costs and to increase the level of discount over and above the current student discount level to an average of 50% across all services, including city, intercity and rural services. The discount will initially be made available on all subsidised PSO bus, rail and Luas services next month. It will then be broadened to include commercial operators, such as Expressway, later this year. Intensive work is under way with representatives from the commercial bus sector, the National Transport Authority and the Department to devise a mechanism to implement and expedite the deployment of the YAC in the commercial bus sector. I hope to have arrangements in place before students return to third level education after the summer break to ensure they can avail of the initiative. It is important to establish sustainable travel habits if we are to meaningfully reduce our transport emissions and reach our climate objectives.

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