Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this very important motion on free transport. I think there is a very valid argument in regard to public transport being free, accessible and of top quality. All the evidence suggests that where we have such a system, people will use it. I always remember going to Europe for the very first time and being amazed by the system of public transport. It was the thing that stood out most to me when I went to parts of Europe, in particular the accessibility and the fact it was relatively cheap. It got even better when I went east to the ex-communist countries and although they had their faults, their transport was pretty unbelievable for countries like that.

There are many valid reasons we should have free public transport and one of the main reasons is around environmental issues. Capitalism has relied on the car culture. We only have to look at the M50 and many other places in Ireland where there is complete dominance of cars. That is not environmentally sustainable. If we build and give people an option or an alternative to cars, they will use it. As I said, all the evidence points that way.

The privatisation of certain services in Dublin has been an unmitigated disaster. With Go-Ahead Ireland, a company that runs certain services in Dublin mid-west, buses are not even showing up for two or three hours.

Imagine how frustrating it is if you are waiting for a bus to go to work but it never comes, so you have to pay €25 for a taxi to get to work, and when you are coming back from work, there is no bus again. These services need to be taken back into public hands.

A model of free transport with connectivity and accessibility is important. It has been put in place around Europe so that getting a bus, train or any other form of public transport, except taxis of course, is free. Where free transport is accessible, people will use it. Once people start doing that, there will be fewer cars on the road, which would be a very good thing.

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