Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this important issue. I understand that the Senator’s question concerns the new national fares strategy, as she has outlined, and particularly as it affects and pertains to her area of Newbridge in Kildare. I reassure the Senator that the Government is strongly committed to providing a cost-efficient public transport sector, including affordable and accessible public transport services. The Senator mentioned affordable, accessible and transparent fares. That is exactly what we want to achieve.

In this context, a number of measures have been taken to ensure services remain affordable. As part of the programme for Government, we committed to review existing fare structures to ensure that public transport is as accessible as possible, supports the delivery of services and incentivises off-peak travel.

I should clarify that the National Transport Authority has statutory responsibility for the regulation of fares charged to passengers in respect of public transport services provided under public service obligation, PSO, contracts. In this context, on 27 April 2023, the NTA published a new national fares strategy, on which the Senator attended a briefing. The strategy follows the previous implementation of a simplified fares structure for Dublin, which combines elements of distance and equitability between routes and proposes an approach for the rest of Ireland aimed at providing better value, greater transparency, and equality in respect of journey distance.This new approach will apply to fares outside the Dublin metropolitan area for public service obligation, PSO, bus and rail services provided by the NTA under contracts with bus operators and Iarnród Éireann. It will complement the planned roll-out of significant changes to public transport networks in rural and urban areas, such as BusConnects and Connecting Ireland. I am advised that no changes to the existing fare structure will be introduced until later in 2023, after a fare determination process, and any such changes will be dependent on the availability of necessary Exchequer funding. It is hoped that the new strategy will help encourage existing passengers and new users to use public transport more by implementing a fairer and easier to understand structure.

In relation to the Senator’s query about the impact on commuters from Newbridge and Kildare, I am advised that the newly created Dublin commuter zone in the strategy will apply to these areas, meaning that for travel from the Dublin commuter zone into the more central Dublin city zone, or vice versa, the lower of the following fares will apply, either the national fare structure, that is, boarding charge plus an incremental fare based on the straight-line distance between the start and end stop of the journey, or the flat Xpresso Dublin city fare plus an incremental fare based on the straight-line distance between the start of the journey and the Dublin city zone boundary. This approach will ensure that the cheapest fare is made available for passengers and will help alleviate boundary issues between the national and city fare structures.

For short distance trips crossing the Dublin city zone boundary, such as Greystones to Bray or Newbridge to Sallins, passengers will get the benefit of the national fare structure and the associated lower fare reflective of the short distance travelled. However, for longer distance journeys, for example Newbridge to O’Connell Street, passengers will benefit from the flat fare element within the city facilitating longer distances of travel at a cheaper fare. For journeys entirely within the Dublin commuter zone, the standard national fare structure will apply.