Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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43. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will make a statement regarding the National Fares Strategy. [4540/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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On the 27th of April 2023, the National Transport Authority (NTA) published a new National Fares Strategy. The Fares Strategy follows the previous implementation of a simplified fares structure for Dublin, which combines elements of distance and equitability between routes, and proposes an approach for the rest of Ireland aimed at providing better value, greater transparency, and equality in respect of journey distance.

This new approach will apply to fares outside the Dublin metropolitan area for public service obligation, PSO, bus and rail services provided by the NTA under contracts with bus operators and Iarnród Éireann. It will complement the planned roll-out of significant changes to public transport networks in rural and urban areas, such as Bus Connects and Connecting Ireland.

Following the publication of the Strategy, on the 18th of January 2024 the NTA published its Fare Determination. The most significant change is the implementation of an initial phase of the National Fare Strategy on Dublin Commuter bus and rail services. The short distance Leap fare will increase slightly from €1.30 to €1.50, but still continue to represent excellent value for money for hop on/hop off travel on Dublin city bus, rail and Luas services. The new ‘Dublin City Zone’ will now include areas such as Ashbourne and Ratoath providing better value for passengers from these areas with fares to the city centre reducing from €3.40 to €2.40 on Leap. The 90-Minute fare level will be retained at €2.00 in this determination. The vast majority of passengers within the ‘Dublin City Zone’ will therefore experience no increase in fare as a result of this determination.

This Fare Determination represents the first step in delivering the National Fare Strategy, and it is the NTA’s intention to roll this out further across the country in future determinations.