Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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4. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will introduce a policy to ensure that there is no increase in public transport fares until we are on track to meet our transport-related carbon emissions targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23026/25]

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I ask the Minister to introduce a policy to ensure there is no increase in public transport fares until we are at least on track to meet our transport-related carbon emissions; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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The Deputy is no doubt aware of the considerable amount of research, both domestically and internationally, on what drives increased passenger numbers on public transport. I am happy to report there has been strong growth in passenger numbers in recent years, with numbers trending at plus 9% in 2024 versus 2023. In October 2024, public transport surpassed 1 million PSO passengers a day for the first time ever, with an average of 1 million passenger journeys recorded daily. This growth continues in 2025, with a recent 9% increase in passenger numbers in the last period compared to the same period last year.

The Deputy is right to highlight the importance of ensuring more people are incentivised to make the switch to public transport and also the challenge we face in meeting our transport-related emissions targets. The main drivers are fundamentally around issues such as the availability, frequency and reliability of transport, as discussed earlier. I am pleased to say that progress is being made on each of those issues but, equally, I acknowledge that while the work is well under way, much remains to be done.

On availability, we are rolling out new services across the country under initiatives such as BusConnects in the cities, the town services in the bigger towns and Connecting Ireland in rural Ireland. We need to continue this progress in the years ahead. In terms of frequency, we are supporting the rollout of increased service levels on existing services and ensuring enhanced frequency on new services as they are rolled out. Again, we need to build on this progress in the years ahead. On reliability, we have major infrastructure projects under BusConnects for each of the five cities, as well as introducing improvements to the vehicle location system and real-time passenger information, all of which will improve the reliability of the system. We need to see construction start on those BusConnects corridors in Dublin and roll that out to the other cities too.

Of course, I acknowledge that the affordability of public transport is also important, particularly for certain cohorts of society.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State should conclude.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I will come back in with a supplementary reply.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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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.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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On the last point regarding the increases in some areas, there have also been massive decreases in other areas because the new ticketing and fare system for Dublin has created a fairer way of dealing with this.

To go back to the affordability of public transport, it is important to state there have been many fare changes in recent years. For example, the Government is expanding free child fares and maintaining the young adult student leap card at 50% off, and there is also a 90-minute fare. These are initiatives to try to incentivise people to use public transport, which is happening. However, we also have to ensure that the frequency is put in place. For example, to take the rail line from Athenry to Galway as a typical example, we are putting in a passing loop to make sure we can get additional trains in and out and make the service more frequent. We are trying to do that across the country and there is huge investment happening in Dublin. Improvements are happening all of the time. Public transport is a good news story.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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If the Minister of State were to talk to my constituents in Greystones and Kilcoole, they would not be particularly in agreement with him about public transport being a good news story. They have seen an increase of 30% in their fares and children have seen an increase of 200%. It is very hard to sell that as a good news story to people in those towns, particularly when the train service for areas like Greystones, Kilcoole and further south in Wicklow is essentially a part-time service as we do not have services on the majority of bank holiday weekends.

I also want to mention that the services south of Dublin are due for major disruption on the bank holiday weekend of 2 June, which is the VHI mini-marathon weekend. The majority of women who go into Dublin for that mini-marathon and all of the charities that rely on them will be severely impacted by these service disruptions. I ask the Minister of State to directly contact Iarnród Éireann to ask it to reverse the decision. I understand the need for maintenance but on such a major event weekend, it is ridiculous that Iarnród Éireann is cancelling services south of Dublin.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I understand the Deputy’s frustration in terms of lines having to be taken out of service but that is a health and safety issue for passengers. Maintenance has to be done. I can guarantee the Deputy that no matter what day of the week or hour of the day it is done, it will not suit everybody. It is a reality in public transport.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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Tens of thousands of women will be travelling in.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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Absolutely. In general terms, a huge amount of work has been done in the area of public transport, be it BusConnects, Local Link or the train network right across the country. We have a huge amount yet to do. We have to make it more efficient and more attractive. In particular, we have to give young people the experience they need so when they are going out into the workforce, their first project will not be to buy a car but to use public transport, which they have had a good experience of.

I look forward in my ministerial role, with my two ministerial colleagues, to continuing to develop the system, removing the parts of the public transport system that are not working and replacing them with a more efficient system for everybody.