Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Fianna Fáil Party, I welcome Senator Bradley. She is incredibly welcome. It is a great honour to be nominated to the Seanad Chamber. It is lovely to see her family and fiancé with her. When we became Members of this Seanad it was during Covid and we were in the Convention Centre Dublin. We could not have family or friends with us. I urge Senator Bradley to cherish the day. We look forward to working with her. I have no doubt she has a lot to offer and to give us during the Seanad proceedings.

On Tuesday morning, I raised the National Transport Authority, NTA, and the fact that there was a very strong possibility that the fairer fares that had been committed to for those within the 50 km zone outside of Dublin, which includes Newbridge and Kildare in the constituency in which I live, parts of north County Dublin, Wicklow, Meath and Louth, would be deferred until 2025.

Since then I have had a number of meetings. The NTA appeared before the transport committee yesterday and I thank Senator Dooley for allowing me attend in his place. At that meeting I said very clearly that while it seemed that there were technical reasons for this delay, that is simply not good enough for the people that I and others represent. It has been a really long battle to get to this point. Many people who commute from my area of Newbridge and Kildare were promised a fare decrease. It was promised because of the unfair strategy that had been in place. We must have that reduction in place in September. If there is an issue with the technology, it should be done in some other way while we are waiting for the new technology to come onstream.

I had the opportunity to meet with the Minister of State, Deputy Lawless, yesterday evening. He informed me that when he got my call on Tuesday, he spoke to departmental officials who were not aware of this. They thought that it must be a mistake because the NTA had not informed them. They had to contact the NTA then for clarification. Clearly the NTA had not told the Department of Transport or the Minister's office. It is simply not good enough for the organisation to act like that. It is really stymieing Government policy in trying to make public transport accessible, affordable and integrated. I call for a debate in this House on this issue as soon as possible.

Finally, I must mention that we have reached a very difficult milestone, with 100 people having died on our roads this year. The 100th person was tragically killed during the week and most of these fatalities are down to driver behaviour. We have to put out an appeal in that regard. We also need more surveillance, Garda patrols and so on. I call for a debate after the recess on road safety.