Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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130. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the extent to which he expects public transport to play a major role in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20929/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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This Government is committed to a fundamental change in the nature of transport in Ireland and at the heart of that change will be a shift toward increased use towards both active travel and public transport.

Our funding reflects that commitment with significantly increased funding dedicated to public transport infrastructure and services, reflecting the Programme for Government commitment of a two-to-one ratio in favour of new public transport infrastructure over new roads infrastructure.

That funding is supporting huge, transformative projects such as DART+ in Leinster, BusConnects in all five cities, MetroLink in Dublin but also supporting the roll-out of new, enhanced and improved rural bus services across the country under Connecting Ireland. In addition to these important projects we’ve also funded fare reductions as evidenced by the general 20% reduction applied across subvented bus and rail networks the 50% reduction introduced through the Young Adult Card. These projects and initiatives are just some of the wide range of public transport improvements being introduced across the State.

These investments are necessary if we are to achieve the hugely challenging targets set by the Climate Action Plan 2023 to reduce the modal share of daily car journeys from over 70% to circa 50% by 2030 which will require a 130% increase in public transport trips alone.

I am delighted to say that these measures are bearing fruit with numbers returning to our public transport system post-COVID in a way not seen in most other EU Member States.