Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, for returning to the Seanad. She has had a long afternoon in the Chamber but we are always pleased to see her. I am pleased my Fianna Fáil colleagues in the Seanad agreed to use our Private Members' time for this important debate on public transport and on extending the short-hop zone to 50 km, which would include the towns of Newbridge and Kildare and more - there are six towns that would be affected - in addition to extending a medium-hop zone to 75 km away from the centre. This would be important for my own town of Newbridge and for many other commuter counties around Leinster particularly in Meath and Wicklow.

The short-hop zone is Irish Rail's Dublin area network and within this network, an integrated smart Leap card can be used for rail travel. The zone extends north to Balbriggan on DART and northern commuter services, south to Greystones on the DART and southern commuter services, east to Howth, west to Kilcock on Longford commuter services, and west to Sallins and Naas on the Portlaoise commuter services. The Leap fare capping applies to this zone, meaning that passengers pay a maximum daily or weekly amount. This hop zone means commuters living within the zone who opt to use public transport can avail of huge savings when compared with commuters living just outside the zone boundary. In my view the short-hop zone is the correct policy and it has been very successful in attracting passengers and commuters to public transport and away from using private cars on the road. That is absolutely what we want.

However the boundaries simply do not go far enough. I thank the Oireachtas Library and Research Service for looking at some of the countries within the OECD for comparisons and for doing price analysis comparison in the particular areas we are talking about. When I make a comparison, if we were to extend to 50 km outside Dublin, and this could also be applied to Galway or Cork, the new areas that would be included would be Gormanston, Laytown and Enfield in County Meath, Newbridge and Kildare town in County Kildare, and Wicklow town in County Wicklow. Looking at the price variation in Sallins at present, which is the next stop before Newbridge, the price per kilometre is 26 cent and Newbridge is 51 cent. If we bring it further and look at Kildare, Monasterevin and Portarlington, it is 50 cent, 45 cent and 40 cent per kilometre, respectively. If we take the prices based on kilometre, the difference is between 26 cent and 51 cent for Newbridge and then it goes down for towns that are further. out. I would say that the people of Newbridge who use the train station are completely discriminated against in terms of price.

If we look at average fares for all passengers on the Dublin to Portlaoise commuter service, which is the one that comes through Sallins and Newbridge, at this present the single fare between Sallins and Naas is €4.75 but to Newbridge is €14.30. When comparing a fare of €4.75 with one of €14.30, it is simply not good enough. This motion seeks to improve the affordability metrics for commuters who reside outside the short-hop boundaries and to level the playing field for residents of the same area. For example, I mentioned my home town of Newbridge, County Kildare. Because Newbridge is not within the confines of the short-hop zone, commuters cannot benefit from the Leap card or fare arrangements. What happens is that a lot of people who live close to Newbridge station and could walk there get into their cars to drive to Sallins to avail of the cheaper fare and who can blame them? Irish Rail has extended the car park in Sallins to accommodate the extra cars and that causes chaos, with people going from Newbridge over a single bridge to Sallins in the morning. There are parents who drive their children to Sallins.Basically what happens is that many people, who live close to Newbridge station and could walk there, are getting into their cars and driving to Sallins to avail of the cheaper fair and who can blame them? What has Irish Rail done? It has extended the carpark in Sallins to accommodate the extra cars. This causes chaos for those travelling from Newbridge over the one bridge to Sallins in the morning. Parents are driving their children to Sallins. I appreciate there has been a reduction of 50% for young people under 23 years of age on trains but at the same time, there is still that huge price differential. While I absolutely support the extension of Local Link transport, which provides a bus service to link Newbridge with Sallins rail station, it is getting away from the issue. We need to have affordable fares from Newbridge station. To purchase a return ticket from Newbridge to Dublin Heuston this morning, with the 20% discount, would have cost me €16.90 and that is just from station to station and does not include the internal travel within Dublin - say to come to Leinster House from Heuston station. If I was travelling from Sallins within the short-hop zone, I could get from Newbridge to Heuston and back for €7.20. That is a 57% price differential for two stations that are 12.3 km apart. It is not fair and needs to be addressed. I know it is not just an issue in my own area. I am aware from conversations with Senators in my own party, such as Senator Casey, that this is happening on all fringes of the zone. This drastic price differential is forcing many commuters to drive themselves to a station within the short-hop zone to avail of the cheaper cards and the Leap card capping facility. This capping facility is very important because it also means you can travel on any different mode of public transport within the city centre on your Leap card. Without it, you are actually confined to just one mode: the 145 bus. That is not going to be suitable for everybody who arrives into Heuston station. I spoke to the National Transport Authority, NTA, about this and it brought up the price of installing new equipment and the fact that there would have to be somebody on duty all of the time. To be honest, the cost would be minimal. When it suits Irish Rail and the NTA to call Newbridge a commuter zone, for example, when they refuse to have the toilets open, they say the station is a commuter belt area which does not need toilets but then when it comes to looking for the extension of the short-hop zone, it is not treated in the same way. It is a crazy situation.

The Dáil and the Seanad passed the climate Act and Ireland is now on a legally-binding path to net-zero emissions no later than 2050. We are looking at a 51% reduction in emissions by the end of this decade and, as it stands, we have people driving single-occupancy vehicles past their local public train station to go to another station because we are crucifying them with fares. It makes absolutely no sense. At present, the short-hop zone applies to all rail travel on all Irish Rail services between destinations within 35 km - measured by track distance not point-to-point - of either of Dublin's two primary central rail stations, namely, Heuston or Connolly stations.

The motion I put forward is now Fianna Fáil policy and I thank our spokesperson on transport, Deputy O'Connor, and Deputy Barry Cowen, who looks after that policy area, for their support. We are calling for an extension of the short-hop zone to a 50 km radius and the establishment of a medium-hop zone within a 75 km radius which would include Portarlington. This would make a huge difference to the catchment area. In terms of population growth in Kildare, the amount of people who travel outside the county for work has grown considerably. To be able to support this group of people with public transport and fair fares would be hugely important. In many cases, it would cut down the need for a second car in families as well. For a town that has exploded in terms of population, this would be a huge success story.