Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)

I thank Deputy O'Gorman for bringing this motion before us. The Labour Party will gladly support it. I do not think there is a word in it that I would fault. The Green Party, to be fair, kick-started much-needed investment in our public transport during its time in government, following decades of neglect and underinvestment. It achieved fare reductions on public transport and enhanced Local Link services, investing record amounts and achieving a record 328 million public transport journeys last year. That was a 10% increase on the previous year and a 36% increase on 2022. The Luas passed 50 million journeys for the first time. We obviously need to see more of this. While acknowledging the constraints faced by a small party in government, I still believe more could have been done during the term of the previous Government. In addition, improvements to our public transport system are coming at too slow a pace. We see this in the context of the time it is taking to complete the roll-out of BusConnects, a relatively simple project. We have been talking about MetroLink for the better part of 25 years, and a sod still has not been turned in respect of it.

This is not necessarily the fault of the Green Party. We know better than anyone that when you are in government with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, you have to fight tooth and nail for every scrap you can get. Again, the measures the Green Party was able to get over the line during the term of the previous Government were largely positive. Building up capacity and making public transport an affordable and reliable option for people works. Anyone will tell you that our public transport system is far from perfect, but the evidence is there that investment works. We need to see continued investment. We still have not reached a place where public transport is the preferred option for the majority of people, which is where we ultimately need to be. Public transport answers, or at least provides a significant part of the answer to, so many of the questions we face with transport more broadly in this country. These are questions about the climate crisis and reducing our emissions and about road safety and reducing the number of fatalities on our roads, particularly in rural areas. With issues like driving test backlogs and the waiting times we are seeing, such a demand exists. For so many people across Ireland, private car use is their only option because of a lack of public transport, not just in terms of availability but also reliability, efficiency, frequency, cost and sometimes even personal safety.

The previous Government committed to a ratio of 2:1 investment in public and active travel versus new road infrastructure, which was welcome. However, this needs to be built upon in order that we can decarbonise our transport sector and meet our vital carbon targets. That is not to mention the benefits in terms of connectivity, accessibility, health and so on, that more investment in public and active travel bring. Labour called for that ratio to be increased to 5:1 because that is the sort of ambition we need if we ever hope to have a world-class public transport system and to meet our climate targets in the transport area. It is in that context that I was extremely disappointed with the programme for Government. At a time when we need to see a modal shift to the greatest extent possible away from private car use and towards greener, more sustainable modes of transport like buses, rail and cycling, what was the major policy change in the transport sector? It was to pour more concrete. It is clear that the climate-regressive, parish-pump instincts of this Government’s composition won the day. There is no vision for public transport in its plans. There is no lodestar to work towards, and the programme for Government is beyond bare when it comes to detail. Instead, it is bypasses for the boys and lay-bys for the lackeys. Any pretence that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or any Independents are sincere in their commitment towards climate action and encouraging the modal shift towards public transport is over. They will not make the difficult decisions, namely bold but absolutely necessary decisions like reallocating our existing road space for public transport. I cannot help but feel that they saw what happened to the Greens in the election and thought, “No thanks”. Regrettably, we are even seeing the Tánaiste oppose public transport measures in his constituency, which is depressing.

This motion provides a good picture of the direction we need to move in, both in terms of investment and regarding how we bring people along with us and encourage them to leave their cars at home as much as possible. Anything we can do to make public transport more affordable and more widely used will get my support and that of my party. In this regard, I would like to see our rail pricing system looked at. A one-way flexi ticket from Galway to Dublin costs approximately €16, whereas the same ticket from Dublin to Cork costs €33, which is double the cost despite there being only approximately 40 km difference in the distance travelled. I have been in touch with the NTA about this. It acknowledged that the fare structures are not always equitable, consistent or easy for passengers to understand, as other Deputies have alluded to. I ask the Minister work closely with the NTA to change this.

The motion also refers to the proposed transport security force - a dedicated transport police. I welcome this. The incident in Mountjoy Square last April in which a man threatened a bus driver with a gun brought violence on public transport to public attention. Many political promises were made in the aftermath of that incident. Unfortunately, there are dangerous and sometimes violent incidents on buses in parts of my constituency of Dublin South-West all too regularly, but they get absolutely no attention. Thankfully, our community is working together to try to solve these issues. We hold monthly transport forum meetings with bus drivers, gardaí, the council, local community and youth groups and public representatives to try to ensure that every passenger and driver can experience a safe environment and that the bus services are not cut off in any of our communities due to violence or dangerous incidents. I pay tribute to SIPTU for pushing the issue and commend its broader Respect Transport Workers campaign, a really positive initiative. I also acknowledge and thank the thousands of transport workers across the country for the work they do every day. We could certainly do with transport police. I reiterate the call in the motion to have the force up and running by at least the end of next year.

Given that the crux of the motion is the public transport experience for passengers, I also want to give my support to a matter raised recently by my party leader, Deputy Bacik. I refer to the rules relating to pets on public transport. We are out of step with many of our European neighbours. My understanding is that, on buses anyway, it is often at the discretion of the driver as to whether someone is allowed on a with a pet. In the interests of inclusivity and encouraging more people to use public transport, we should make it policy that pets be permitted on public transport, with the necessary caveats that they are on a leash and so forth.

The motion calls for better public transport experience, but, of course, you cannot have an experience if there is no bus or train there for you. Earlier this year, there were serious issues with the reliability of certain bus services in Dublin South-West, particularly the S6 and S8 routes, causing incredible frustration in our area. Thankfully, these issues appear to have been largely resolved but it points to a broader trend with the quality of services being provided on routes that have been privatised. There has been a notable decline in that quality since many of the routes in my area were taken over by Go-Ahead, be it the increasing frequency of ghost buses, cancellations or issues around punctuality. TFI is considering privatising even more routes, and I put my party's opposition to this on record. It makes more sense to have a single public entity, namely Dublin Bus, operate all services in Dublin rather than a mishmash of public and for-profit providers. If it is a funding issue with Dublin Bus, then just give it the funding.

I reiterate my call for a new feasibility study on a metro for Dublin South-West. Getting the sod turned on MetroLink will hopefully be a priority for this Government, but there is a gaping hole when it comes to Dublin South-West because 350,000 people live there are there is zero rail infrastructure. I will be working closely with the Metro South-West Group on this issue during the current Dáil term. I commend the group on its work on this to date.

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