Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will talk about transport today. We have very welcome news that there will be a 90-minute fare for Dublin. This is of great importance because we know that the transition must also mean we have a transition in transport. I do not see why we cannot have a 90-minute fare in every city. We would certainly welcome it in Galway. It costs €6 each way to travel between Galway and Athenry and people may then have to hop on a bus. There are no joined-up fares in most of our cities. I ask the Minister and the Deputy Leader to progress this issue because it is very important. It will make people get on board with the transition to a climate-just future.

Connecting Ireland was announced a couple of weeks ago. That will see a significant increase in public transport across the country. Currently, 53% of people have access to buses, which is quite a low figure. We have a very dispersed population, which speaks to the issue raised by Senator Kyne. One of the issues with one-off housing is that it is difficult to connect it from a transport point of view. With Connecting Ireland, 70% of the country will be connected, which will be a major improvement. This was part of what we included in the programme for Government.

Let us not forget that cost is a huge contributory reason for choosing a car instead of a bus. When it is cheaper to travel by car with children and then to park, it stops an awful lot of people from taking the bus. It is not just the lack of access. Let us address the two issues at the same time. This issue has been raised for years and is being addressed right now in Dublin. We have to ask when is it will be addressed in the cities outside of Dublin?