Public Transport and Fare Increases: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Daniel Ennis (SD), Dublin Central

In a cost-of-living crisis and a climate crisis, one of the things that makes least sense is increasing the cost of public transport. However, that is a decision this Government has made. The Government could have chosen to invest further in public transport and encourage more people to use public transport networks it has already invested in, but it has not. Public transport is a public good that needs investment. This Government should be building on those investments, not undermining them by pushing people away from public transport.
For every 10% increase in public transport fares, ridership is estimated to fall by 3%. Instead, the Government has decided to place another financial burden on individuals and families who are already struggling through a cost-of-living crisis, with public transport fares set to increase by an average of 15%. This will have a significant impact on those individuals and families who rely on public transport. For many people living in my constituency of Dublin Central, the impact will be particularly acute, with short fares increasing by approximately 33%. This increase will disproportionally affect those on lower incomes and at a time when people are already struggling, a lot of people simply will not be able to afford this. At a time when the Government is already making abysmal progress towards meeting its climate targets, the last thing it should be doing is pushing people off public transport and back into cars.
As the Minister well knows, Dublin is already one of the most congested cities in the world. With a predicted decrease in public transport ridership, congestion will only get worse. Dublin drivers already lose 158 hours per year in rush hour traffic and that figure will only increase if people move back to cars because of the higher fares. On top of that, increased congestion makes our bus and Luas services slower and less efficient, further undermining our public transport network. Increasing fares also runs directly against the Government's own climate policy. We are supposed to be shifting journeys away from private cars and towards public transport if we are to meet our own emission targets, yet at this very moment, when we need to accelerate that shift, the Government is allowing public transport to become more expensive.
The contradiction is even clearer when we look at the Government's own record. When fares were cut in 2022, Ministers explicitly argued that cheaper fares would encourage people onto public transport and reduce our reliance on private cars. If reducing fares supported a modal shift then, the Minister needs to explain how increasing them is supposed to support that very same climate objective. All the facts, evidence and research point towards keeping public transport affordable, but the Minister is not following the advice here. Instead, he appears to be betting that public transport users do not have the same ability to bring the country to a standstill as other sectors.
Ultimately, fare increases are a political choice, and a very poor one. If the Government is serious about getting people out of their cars, reducing emissions and making public transport a viable alternative, it should be making public transport more affordable, accessible and not putting up the price of using 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