Public Transport and Fare Increases: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Martin Kenny (SF), Sligo-Leitrim

We are here this evening to try to appeal to the Minister to ensure that these transport hikes do not go ahead in circumstances where across the country we have so many people who simply cannot get public transport in the first place. For example, I was with Irish Rail earlier, and we talked about the commuter service into Sligo town where the earliest train in the morning gets in there at ten o'clock. There is no train for people going to appointments, work or college. Irish Rail says that it has put in place the plan for it but the NTA has no money to provide for it this year.
We have a similar situation here. It is 6.20 p.m. but the next train leaving Dublin to go to Sligo is at seven o'clock. Most people who work in this place cannot get away until long after that and have not got an option. Similarly, the trains are at five o'clock and seven o'clock. There is none in the middle at six o'clock, so people are waiting for hours for it. It is no wonder that people continue to use the only transport they have which is the car. That is what we have to do here and so many people around the length and breadth of the country are in the very same situation.
To be putting hikes on the cost of providing transport when in many cases it is not there is simply untenable. In a situation where we are trying to get people out of the car and are appealing to them to use public transport because we have the carbon crisis we talk about, we cannot have a situation where the Government continues to raise the cost of it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29