Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for bringing forward this motion, which, as they can imagine, is close to my heart. I thank Deputies Pringle, Joan Collins and McNamara for their clear statements, which I listened to and which I will address in detail later on. The 50% cut in the price of public transport for young people and the 20% cut are the most dramatic interventions in the fare system for public transport since Charlie Haughey's free travel scheme for elderly people. A 66 year-old person is not an elderly person anymore; I will be one myself in a few years so that is something to look forward to. I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak about the importance of continued investment in our public transport. I am doing this on behalf of the Minister for Transport and I have no doubt that we will all agree on the Government's commitment to delivering an integrated, accessible and sustainable public transport network throughout the country. The Government will not oppose the motion but there are some minor details that we have an issue with, which we will discuss this morning.

The Minister for Transport is conscious of the need to connect our people and places across Ireland. It is important to provide opportunities for all citizens to access their employment, education, healthcare or go shopping. He is strongly committed to improving public transport services in rural areas and to piloting new transport initiatives for people of all ages and abilities living there. Whether it is reduced car dependency or a more integrated transport network, our vision for rural Ireland is ambitious and one that is a key motivator at his Department as it prepares its work programme for 2023. I was in County Donegal a few weeks ago and I met the former Tánaiste, Mary Coughlan, who is on the board of Transport for Ireland, TFI, Local Link Donegal Sligo Leitrim. We discussed what her issues were with the service there, which has been reinvested in and improved but is by no means perfect. However, there have been huge improvements in the Local Link service, which we can talk about later. The Department of Transport and the National Transport Authority, NTA, are supporting this by providing increased funding for enhanced TFI Local Link services for regular, timetabled, door-to-door and demand-responsive services, where more than 90% of those journeys are fully accessible. The Department and the NTA are looking to explore alternative options to boost coverage, including non-conventional options such as demand-responsive transport, community cars and local area hackneys. Government is committed to reviewing the extensive learnings from the pilot study in County Leitrim, which positively integrated non-emergency health transport with public transport offerings. One of the key plans for enhancing the existing transport network throughout Ireland falls under the connecting Ireland rural mobility plan, which entails the enhancement of regional networks connecting cities and regional centres nationwide through expanding TFI's Local Link services and by prioritising public transport projects that enhance connectivity.

As well as playing a key social role within our communities, encouraging greater use of public transport is also critical to tackling our climate change challenge, as Deputy Collins said. The Department of Transport's sustainable mobility policy sets out our vision for the future of sustainable mobility in Ireland and it aims to support a transition to more sustainable daily travel method. We have targets to deliver 500,000 additional daily active travel and public transport journeys and a 10% reduction in the number of kilometres driven by fossil fuel cars by 2030. This policy is underpinned by a robust action plan set out to 2025 alongside capital funding allocated in the revised national development plan, which is to ensure delivery. In the more urban parts of Ireland, projects such as BusConnects will provide more sustainable, accessible and reliable transport options to everyone, resulting in higher quality services. By revitalising public transport and providing safe and active travel routes, the project represents a necessary modal shift away from private transport. The fleet renewal will save the equivalent of 85,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, in line with targets set in the climate action plan, while improving capacity. It is vital that BusConnects continues to engage in real dialogue with the communities it is serving. I have seen many examples where BusConnects put forward a project for a particular area, such as a village or town, and then went back and completely revised it to make sure it was in line with what people in the area wanted. Better projects resulted from that.

On our rail network, the Department of Transport, in co-operation with the Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland, is preparing a strategy for the development of the railway sector on the island of Ireland from 2040. The all-island strategic rail review will examine the role of rail with regard to: improving sustainable connectivity between the major cities; enhancing regional accessibility; supporting balanced regional development; and providing improved connectivity to the north west of the island. This review will also consider the potential scope for improved rail services along the various existing or future potential corridors of the network. That scope will include the potential afforded by disused and closed lines. It will be one of the most significant reviews of the rail network on the island in many years and will provide a framework to develop a much-improved rail network in the years ahead. The review is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Additionally, the new DART+ fleet contract award is an exciting marker of progress in the delivery of the overall DART+ programme, which is the largest ever investment in our rail network. DART+ will modernise and improve existing rail services in the greater Dublin area, increasing the network from 50 km to 150 km of railway corridor and doubling capacity for 26,000 passengers per hour to up to 52,000 per hour during peak hours. In addition, it will allow for frequent, modern and electrified services to Drogheda on the northern line, Hazelhatch and Celbridge on the Kildare line, and Maynooth and M3 Parkway on the Maynooth line, while improving DART services on the south-east line as far south as Greystones. We look forward to the first order of 95 new carriages entering into service in 2025, allowing the current fleet to be used elsewhere and creating additional capacity across the system.

To further champion the ethos of public transport for all, the Minister for Transport is fully committed to strengthening our public transport offerings and to progressively making them accessible for all, especially for persons with disabilities or reduced mobility and for older persons. The Department of Transport and its agencies are progressively making public transport accessible for disabled people, including in rural areas, by ensuring that new infrastructure and services are accessible from the start and by retrofitting older legacy infrastructure and facilities. Accessibility features such as wheelchair accessibility and audiovisual aids are built into new public transport infrastructure projects and vehicles from the design stage. Additionally, the Department is committed to further reducing the 24 hours of notice for travel on rail services, which has been brought down to four hours in major train stations. However, work remains to be done on the retrofitting of older legacy infrastructure such as the Victorian era train stations. To support these works, the Department continues to provide funding into a multi-annual accessibility retrofit programme, which includes programmes to: install accessible bus stops in rural and regional areas; upgrade bus bays at regional bus and train stations; upgrade train stations to make them accessible to wheelchair users; and provide grant support to increase the number of wheelchair accessible taxis. A key Government objective is to provide all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options and public transport plays a key role in delivering this goal. To support this objective, in budget 2022 the Department of Transport secured about €538 million of funding for public service obligation, PSO, and Local Link services provided by State operators and under contract by the NTA this year.

The Government is strongly committed to helping combat the rising cost of living being experienced throughout the country and, in this context, a suite of new measures was introduced to help with this issue, including the 20% average fare cut on public service obligations, PSO, services, which was brought in during April. In recognition of the importance of incentivising young people to use public transport, the Minister secured €25 million in funding to provide for the introduction of a young adult card, which allows any person nationwide aged between 19 and 23 to avail of a 50% discount across all services, including city, Intercity and rural services. Mature students in full-time third level education are also included in the scheme, as are eligible visitors to Ireland within the young adult age cohort. Further, the NTA is widening the age rules of the scheme to allow 16-, 17- and 18-year-old students in third level education to apply for the student Leap card so they can also get that 50% discount. The Department recently secured €563 million in budget 2023 for the continuation of these essential PSO services and for the continuation of the 20% average fare cut and the 50% fare cut on the young adult card.

It is important to point out that while we are not opposing the motion there are specific calls within it that are not in line with Government policy and these relate to the provision of universal free public transport and Government intervention in employment matters. On free public transport, the Government has invested significantly this year and will continue to invest in 2023 in reduced public transport fares generally by cutting PSO fares by an average of 20% and by introducing the youth adult card. As part of the roll-out of BusConnects Dublin, the TFI 90-minute fare has been introduced, which provides for competitive fares and removes any actual or perceived penalty associated with interchanging between different public transport services within a 90-minute window.

A significant body of international research demonstrates that beyond a certain level of intervention in the fares area, there is a much greater benefit associated with improving and expanding the public transport services themselves. Indeed, in one region, Tallinn in Estonia, which has been mentioned, the OECD recently recommended that fares be reintroduced. A key concern is that the funding required to support free services comes at the expense of investment in supporting public transport services at the levels necessary for optimal existing levels of service and for expanding and improving those services. There is no point in making a service completely free when people cannot board the service in the first place. The service has to be improved. I have visited Tallinn and have seen it working, or not working, at first-hand. I have also seen what they have done in Luxembourg. The approach adopted by Government to date in this area is considered appropriate and the focus at the moment is retaining the reductions introduced, expanding them until end 2023 and supporting new and improved services for next year.

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