Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. As I said in my opening remarks, I appreciate what the Minister has done with regard to the forthcoming youth travel card and the 20% reduction in fares. Unfortunately, commuters in south Kildare will still be getting into their cars because doing so saves them €500 a year. In fact, some are saving €150 or €200 a month. I have some figures from the NTA for the Minister of State. They show that 23,458 adults bought tickets from Newbridge train station in 2021. This is an increase from 11,543 in 2016. We are using the train station in Newbridge but more and more people are using adult single tickets because it is too expensive to purchase other types of ticket. The Minister must look for this measure as part of budget 2023. I assure the Minister of State that the campaign will continue. I welcome the fact that commercial operators are also to be looked at and that funding will be allocated to them because many commuters from regions in south Kildare such as Athy take commercially-operated services to study in Maynooth, which is costing them a lot of money. It is important that the new measures be rolled out to commercial operators. I encourage the Minister of State to raise with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, the issue of climate and the fact that the commuters of south Kildare are still getting in their cars to travel to Naas train station, which is no good for anybody. I ask the Minister of State to bring that message back to the Minister.