Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)

I find it interesting that, literally, the only mention of affordability came in the last sentence of a two-minute contribution, and my question was about fare pricing.

I know we have seen an increase in the number of people using public transport, which is fantastic, but we need to see more of it. Our emissions are stubbornly high in the area of transport and while we have seen a slight reduction, it is nothing like what we need to see. There has been a 6% increase in public transport emissions and as there are a lot more people in Ireland now, that is projected to continue to rise. We need to see a 12% reduction in public transport emissions this year to meet our targets for 2025 but that is clearly not going to happen.

Disincentivising people from using public transport by putting up fares is not the way to do it. We have seen increases in train fares for people in Greystones, Kilcoole, Sallins, Kilcock, Balbriggan and Skerries. That is the wrong way to go about trying to encourage people onto public transport.

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