Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State is very welcome to the House and I thank him for being here to respond to my Commencement matter. When I submitted this matter, I asked that the Minister engage with the NTA on implementing fairer fares for north County Dublin. The fairer fares scheme has been rolled out to some extent and I know more work has to be done on it but I am speaking specifically about the two stations of Balbriggan and Skerries. They are in the Dublin commuter zone and all other stations in Dublin are in the Dublin city zone. This is a significant difference. In the Dublin city zone, the €2 Leap card fare gets people to Connolly Station. The same trip from Balbriggan or Skerries to Connolly Station is significantly more expensive. From Balbriggan, it is €3.90 and from Skerries it is €2.90. This is a big difference. When we think about it, it is €20 a week and more than €1,000 a year. This is what commuters from Balbriggan and Skerries pay compared to people travelling from the next neighbouring stations of Rush and Lusk, who pay the €2 Leap card fare.

The fairer fares scheme has been good for other parts of the country. Passengers from Drogheda have recently seen a significant decrease in their fares. Fair play to them and I have no complaints about this but we are in a situation where we are trying to encourage people to take public transport and fares are being increased for commuters from Balbriggan and Skerries. It is not fair, particularly when we take into account that people are paying for parking at these train stations also, as there are very poor links between the residential areas and the train stations. This adds to the cost of going to work.

Balbriggan and Skerries are the only two Dublin stations that are not in the Dublin city zone. The people there feel very aggrieved. Skerries and Balbriggan are in Dublin, yet they are in the same zone as other stations that are not in County Dublin. This is not fair. Will the Minister of State engage with the NTA to look at this and revisit it? The commuters in Balbriggan and Skerries are really after getting a raw deal with this scheme. Other parts of the country have vastly reduced train fares and bus fares. These commuters are caught in the middle.

The Government has done a lot of work to reduce fares for people, which is to be commended, and more people are using public transport, but when we have this situation where commuters pay over €1,000 more than their neighbours in the next town, it is not fair. I would like to hear the response of the Minister of State to this. He will probably tell me the roll-out of the fairer fares programme has been a great success. I acknowledge that it has been a good success in other parts but the commuters of Balbriggan and Skerries are caught by this. They are not seeing the benefit of it. They feel very aggrieved with the big disparity in their train fare of €3.90 as opposed to €2. The Minister of State can do the maths on doing this trip twice a day, five days a week, over 52 weeks in the year. It is a significant difference. Will the Minister of State respond and engage with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and the NTA to see whether there can be a workaround for the commuters of Skerries and Balbriggan?

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Clifford-Lee for her contribution and for raising very valid points, in particular on the price differentiation. She is right about the Dublin commuter zone. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien. I thank Senator Clifford-Lee for her constant advocacy for public transport and for the people in Balbriggan and Skerries. I will take the Senator’s points back to the Minister. As Members will know, the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding in respect of public transport, but neither the Minister nor his officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. The NTA has responsibility for the regulation of fares charged to passengers in respect of public transport services provided under public service obligation, PSO, contracts. The points made by Senator Clifford-Lee regarding the price differential are valid.

That said, the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options, and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal. To support this objective, in budget 2025, the Department of Transport secured €658.5 million of funding for PSO and TFI Local Link services, an increase from €614 million in 2024. The package includes funding for the continuation of the various public transport fare initiatives, as the Senator acknowledged, and funding to extend free child fares on PSO services to include those aged five to eight, and also to support new and enhanced public transport services.

In its capacity as fare regulator, the NTA published a new national fares strategy in April 2023 and following this, in January 2024, it published the first of a series of fares determinations related to the strategy. This was aimed at simplifying fares and introducing a fairer distance-based structure. I understand the Department of Transport is engaging with the NTA on the implementation of the second phase of the strategy, which will introduce more integrated and equitable fares in the Dublin commuter area. As part of the fares determination 2024 strategy, a Dublin city zone extending to approximately 23 km from the city centre and a Dublin commuter zone extending to approximately 50 km from the city centre, with Skerries and Balbriggan located in commuter zone 2, will be introduced. This area was selected based on a review of future public transport network proposals, for example, the implementation of DART+, along with analysis of ticket sales information to determine travel demand. Later phases will include the introduction of free transfer flat fares in the regional cities and certain towns and distance-based fares for the rest of Ireland outside towns and cities.

The new commuter zone will include stations outside of the Dublin city zone extending as far as Rathdrum, Kildare, Enfield and Drogheda station, including Newbridge, and will provide better value for passengers from these areas. The Dublin commuter zone fare is designed to ensure the cheapest fare is made available for passengers and will help alleviate boundary issues between the national and city fare structures. For example, for a journey from 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.

Unfortunately, the implementation of phase 2 has been delayed due to a number of technical challenges, but I have been advised that Bus Éireann, Irish Rail and Luas are all working closely with their ticketing contractors to enable implementation of the phase 2 fare changes. The implementation of the changes to the rail fares is being led by Irish Rail and the work requires updating ticketing systems, ticketing machines and the installation of new Leap card validators at stations that will come under the new fares structure. The Department of Transport is continuing to engage with the NTA as it works with Irish Rail to minimise or reduce this delay and has advised that phase 2 of the fares determination will go live shortly, as the technological updates to rail ticketing systems by Irish Rail's contractor are due to be completed shortly.

Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail)
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I am well aware the Department and the Minister are not involved in day-to-day operations of public transport, but the opening paragraph of the Minister of State's response stated that the Minister is responsible for policy. This is why I am asking for engagement. It is the policy of the Government to encourage people onto public transport, to lessen the burden of cost on commuters and to make fares fairer.

Balbriggan and Skerries have been caught in this Dublin commuter zone. The Minister of State named a number of other stations in the commuter zone - Rathdrum, Kildare, Enfield and Drogheda. None of those stations is in Dublin. The point I am making is that these are two Dublin stations. The people of Balbriggan and Skerries getting the train every day are coming in and working here in the Houses of the Oireachtas, city centre offices and businesses across the city. They are part of Dublin city. They come into Dublin city to go to school, university and sports events. They are part of Dublin city, like the rest of the city, yet they are being treated the same as people living in counties Louth, Kildare or Wicklow. It just does not make sense that they are made to pay this cost. It is policy matter and it is something the Minister can engage with.

I would like the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, to go back to the NTA and not treat people who are culturally part of Dublin city, and who contribute to Dublin city daily, as something else.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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I again thank Senator Clifford-Lee for her contribution. She makes valid points regarding the people of Balbriggan and Skerries. I will bring them to the Minister on her behalf.

As the Senator said, the Department of Transport has been working with the NTA over recent years to simplify fares across bus, rail and light rail services and introduce a fairer distance-based structure. The programme for Government is committed to review existing fare structures so that we can ensure that public transport is as accessible as possible, supports the delivery of services, and incentivises off-peak travel. It also commits to rolling out contactless fare payments on all public transport, keeping fares low and affordable and examining the further expansion of free public transport for children.

When phase 2 is implemented, it will involve the introduction of the new Dublin city and Dublin commuter zones, which will lead to a significant reduction in Leap card multimodal caps, and the introduction of Leap card credit at all Dublin commuter rail stations, which will be a further positive step towards a more equitable approach to public transport fare pricing.

The Government is committed to delivering a cost-efficient and sustainable public transport network. I will bring the Senator's comments back to the Minister for Transport.

I ask for the Acting Chairperson's permission and indulgence for one moment.

Imelda Goldsboro (Fianna Fail)
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Yes.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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Members might not be aware but today is a very sad but exciting for all of us in the Oireachtas. A great colleague and friend of ours, Aisling Hart, the private secretary to the Cathaoirleach’s office, is retiring. On my own behalf as a former Cathaoirleach and a Member of the Houses of the Oireachtas for 18 years, I thank Aisling most sincerely for the warmth of her personality, sincerity, care, kindness and professionalism, but above all, for being herself. She is one of the most genuine, nice and honest people I have ever worked with. I say “Míle buíochas” to her and thank her. She is a wonderful person who keeps the office going and keeps all of us in check. I wish her a happy retirement.

Imelda Goldsboro (Fianna Fail)
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I wish her the very best.