Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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155. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide a list of the categories of public sector workers and civil servants under his Department whose contracts fall under the Croke Park Agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60739/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Croke Park Agreement encompassed all civil and public servants under my Department. No distinction was made between categories of civil servants under the Agreement.

The grades and categories of all civil servants in my Department affected by the Croke Park Agreement 2010-2014 are listed below.

- Secretary General

- Assistant Secretary

- Principal Officer

- Assistant Principal

- Administrative Officer

- Higher Executive Officer

- Executive Officer

- Clerical Officer

- Service Officer

- Professional and Technical

I have asked the Agencies under my aegis to provide the information directly to the Deputy. Please contact my office if you do not hear from the Agencies within 10 working days.

Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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156. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to reduce public transport fares; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60767/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. However, I am not involved in the day-to-day operations of public transport, nor decisions on fares.

It is the National Transport Authority (NTA) that has the statutory responsibility for the regulation of fares in relation to public passenger transport services and for securing the provision of public transport services by way of public transport services contracts in respect of services that are socially necessary but commercially unviable. The funding of those services comprises both the fares paid by passengers and the subvention payments from the Exchequer. The main purpose of the subvention payment is to meet the gap between income from fares and the cost of operating services.

As the Deputy will be aware, a 20% average reduction was introduced on PSO services earlier this year as part of a suite of Government measures to help combat the rising cost of living. This fare reduction was applied to all services outside the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) from the 11th of April and nationwide from the 9th of May.

The 20% fare reduction comes on top of several other measures which were introduced this year to encourage greater public transport patronage. For instance, the Young Adult Card (YAC), which provides an average 50% fare discount for those aged between 19 and 23 on both PSO and commercial services. As well as the TFI 90 Minute Fares scheme which means that adults now pay €2, young adults pay €1, and children pay just 65 cents to travel for up to 90 minutes on Dublin Bus, Luas and most DART, commuter rail and Go-Ahead Ireland services in Dublin.

I am pleased to advise that as part of the recent Budget 2023 negotiations, I secured c. €563m in funding for PSO services, including funding for the continuation of both the 20% discount on PSO services and the YAC on PSO and participating commercial bus services next year.

While fare reductions are to be welcomed, investment in additional services is also critical. For this reason, I am committed to progressing core projects like BusConnects, Connecting Ireland and DART+ as well as improving existing services across the country.