Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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Good morning, Minister of State. It has always been the Labour Party's vision to invest in public transport, to continue to progressively reduce the cost of public transport and to focus on increasing the reliability of our train services. In general, it is great to see the fare reductions and the expansion of the commuter zones that have come in this week. This is a positive step forward in making transport accessible and affordable for everybody and helping to ease the cost of living and encourage more sustainable travel choices. However, can the Minister of State please explain the rationale behind grouping the Skerries and Balbriggan train stations in commuter zone 2 alongside towns in Kildare, Wicklow and Louth rather than in zone 1 with the other Dublin stations? The decision seems unfair to the residents of the two towns, who are still part of north County Dublin, but also counterproductive from a climate action point of view by making train travel more expensive in the outer areas, which are often under-utilised. This encourages car use, resulting in more cars on the M50, leading to an increase in air pollution and additional barriers to promoting active travel.

I read last night an e-mail from a constituent who has been using the train since 1983. Her fare for her journey from Skerries, which is now being moved into zone 2, has increased by 30%. Another constituent, a student who goes from the Rush-Lusk station to Balbriggan for school, has seen her fare rise, under the new fare structure, from 65 cent to €1.95 – a threefold increase in a week. This is similar to what obtains for students going the opposite way, crossing zone 2 to zone 1, from Skerries and Balbriggan into town. While it might not seem significant in isolation, over a school week or year it adds up and places unnecessary burdens on families who are already struggling with food costs and utility bills.

A father called me last night over his daughter, whose Leap card ran out of money. Her friends were able to sort her out but there was unnecessary stress and panic while they figured out a way to get back from Balbriggan to Rush-Lusk. The hikes are not compatible with the Government's commitments to affordability and encouraging people to use public transport, despite this being the goal.

I put up a petition yesterday – I am not one for petitions generally – to test the waters on this and ask for Skerries and Balbriggan to be moved back into zone 1. The route used to be in the short-hop zone. After 24 hours, there have been up to 1,100 responses, despite my not being known for my social media wizardry. Could we tease this out? Can we examine again the inclusion of Skerries and Balbriggan stations in zone 1, rather than zone 2, where they are now, and at fare structures for students who travel across zones 1 and 2 – say, from Rush-Lusk to Balbriggan – who are being charged three times the rate they were charged a week ago for a two-station station journey? Can serious consideration be given to restoring across zones 1 and 2 the student fares that applied last week?

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I thank the Deputy for his very precise request and for raising this topic, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy O’Brien. The Minister has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. However, neither he nor his officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. The statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally rests with the NTA. The NTA works with the public transport operators that deliver the services and has responsibility for day-to-day operational matters.

That said, I reassure the Deputy that the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options, and public transport plays key role of the delivery of this goal. To support this objective, in budget 2025 the Department of Transport secured €658.442 million in public funding for public service obligations and TFI Local Link services. That is an increase from €613 million in 2024. This funding also supports continuation after a 20% fare reduction in PSO services, the young adult card for both PSO and commercial bus services and the 90-minute fare until the end of 2025. Funding is also being secured to extend free child fares on PSO services to include those between ages five and eight and to support the roll-out of new enhanced bus and rail services under programmes such as BusConnects and Connecting Ireland.

The NTA has strategy responsibility for the regulation of fares charged to passengers in respect to public transport services provided under the PSO contracts. In this context, in April 2023 the NTA published a new national fare strategy. The fare strategy follows the implementation of the simplified fare structure in Dublin. This strategy aims to create a more equitable, consistent and easy-to-understand fare system based on distance travelled. In January 2024, the NTA published fare determinations covering the Dublin city zone, which extends 25 km from the city centre to Rush, Ratoath, Blanchardstown and Bray, and the Dublin commuter zone, which extends 50 kilometres, from the city centre, to Drogheda, Kildare, Rathdrum, etc. Phase 1 was implemented in June 2024 and focused on fares for shorter journeys within Dublin. Phase 2, initially scheduled for September 2024, was delayed due to technical issues with the rail ticketing system. The second phase of the previously announced fare determinations was implemented on Monday, 28 April, introducing new multimodal fare caps in Dublin and revised commuter rail services, with revised commuter fares to come into effect in mid-May. The implementation saw the roll-out of the new Dublin city fare zone and three new Dublin commuter fare zones. Communications campaigns in the form of posters at train stations, etc., commenced on Monday, 24 April. I will refer to this further in my next contribution.

Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. This is a good scheme but there are idiosyncrasies in it that need to be ironed out so the constituents of Dublin Fingal West will be encouraged to use public transport. I understand that distance travelled is one of the criteria in establishing zones, but it seems incredibly unfair that the fares of students travelling two stops from Rush-Lusk over the zone border to Balbriggan have increased threefold since last week. I would be quite happy to meet and work with the Minister, who knows the area quite well, to try to work towards a resolution on this. I thank the Minister of State for his time this morning.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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Let me bring some balance to this.

Single fares for some routes will be reduced significantly. Drogheda to Dublin Connolly will drop from €11.95 to €6, which is a 50% reduction. Conversely, some fares will increase, most notably in Greystones, Sallins and Naas, and Skerries, which fall outside the city zone. Within the Dublin city zone - the 25 km radius from the city centre - the fares determination will see a single monthly Leap fee of €96 and an annual fee of €960. This includes travel across all Dublin city bus, Luas and Irish Rail services within the Dublin city zone, representing a reduction of approximately 17%. The annual tickets on Dublin city bus and rail services will see a 9% fare reduction. The 90-minute fare level will be retained at €2. Fare caps will be revised, reducing the maximum daily, weekly and monthly expenditure for passengers in the Dublin city zone from €8 to €6 for adults.

The Department is liaising closely with the NTA and Irish Rail on the matter and will continue to monitor phase 2. I will bring to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, the Deputy's request for a meeting to deal with this. It is important to return to the initial issue: there is no increase overall in the level of charges across services. The Deputy has said there are some anomalies in the service, which we will continue to monitor.