David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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300. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if, following the reduction in fares across public service obligation public transport, there will be measures to reduce fares on privately operated services where there are no public alternatives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30184/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Government is strongly committed to helping combat the rising cost-of-living being experienced throughout the country. In this context, a suite of new measures is being introduced by Government to help with this issue, including a 20% average fare reduction on all PSO services until the end of 2022. These discounted fares will benefit the hundreds of thousands of people across the country who use PSO public transport every day. The Government allocated €54m in Exchequer funding to provide this measure; however, this funding does not currently include an extension of the scheme to commercial operators.

In recognition of the importance of incentivising young people to use public transport, as part of Budget 2022 I secured €25m of funding to provide for the introduction of a young adult card (YAC) which will allow any person nationwide who is between 19 and 23 years old, to avail of an entitlement for discounted travel costs, and to increase the level of discount over and above the current student discount to an average of discount of 50% across all services, including city, intercity and rural services.

The discount has initially been made available on all subsidised PSO bus, rail and Luas services. It will then be broadened to include commercial operators as soon as practical. Intensive work is underway with representatives from the commercial bus sector, the NTA and the Department to devise a mechanism to implement and expedite the deployment of the Young Adult Card in the commercial bus sector.

Licensed bus and coach operators are an integral part of the overall public transport system particularly in areas which are not covered by existing public service bus and rail services. In recognition of this, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic the Government have provided temporary financial supports for certain licensed commercial services with a view to protecting capacity across the public transport sector throughout the crisis. In acknowledgement of the continuing difficulties facing the sector, these supports have been extended up to 30 June 2022 and to date, over €64 million has been provided to support the commercial bus operators through these supports alone.

It is clear that the above fare initiatives will be of great benefit to public transport users and will not only promote modal shift in the transport sector but should also contribute towards a reduced reliance on private transport with the associated benefit of transport emission savings.