Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief because I only want to raise one issue with the Minister. At the beginning of last year, the NTA published the greater Dublin area transport strategy. It followed a public consultation that it had run for a number of months beforehand. There were 886 submissions received off the back of the Fairer Fares campaign, a campaign that was started by my party colleague, Councillor Sharon Tolan. The reason she is looking for it is that as the Minister is aware, the short hop zone extends to the north of my constituency to Balbriggan. It extends just to the tip of Meath and goes right down to Wicklow. There are towns that have train stations and access just outside of each of those counties. Senator Wall is here, and he will attest to that fact. The difference in the cost of between getting the train from Laytown, which is just north of Balbriggan, and Balbriggan is significant. An adult monthly ticket from Laytown costs €237, and minutes down the road in Balbriggan, it is €136. It is absolutely no wonder that people from Laytown and Gormanston are getting in their cars every morning and driving to Balbriggan, taking up the spaces in the Balbriggan train station car park in order that they can get the train at a much cheaper rate. It makes perfect sense to them, but it is absolutely illogical for any public policy to allow this to continue. The short hop zone fares need to be extended to Laytown, Gormanston and probably up to Drogheda, into Kildare and down to Wicklow. We must do that to make sure that all of those people who are using their cars every day and who we do not want on our roads, are not clogging up the roads and are availing of the public transport the Minister is heavily investing in and improving markedly. That needs to be said and has been shared by other colleagues.

What I want the Minister to have a look at is the 886 submissions and pleas to look at extending the short hop zone to Gormanston and Laytown, to the north of my constituency in Fingal, into Kildare and Meath and down to Wicklow. It would not cost an awful lot of money but would save thousands of needless journeys in the car every day for all of those people. As I said, my colleague, Councillor Sharon Tolan raised this and genuinely has enormous support in our neck of the woods. I am sure that it is also true that she would have support in Kildare, Wicklow and Meath. I ask the Minister to sincerely and seriously look at the extension of that in next year's budget.