Public Transport and Fare Increases: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Eoghan Kenny (LAB), Cork North-Central

I find the decision to increase the price of public transport absolutely mind-boggling when all of the available evidence proves that the use of public transport is dictated by the price of it. Every day, every Member of this House hears stories about mothers with prams and elderly commuters left standing between carriages. In my own county of Cork, I receive a significant number of emails from commuters on the Midleton and Cobh lines who are dealing with two-carriage trains that are packed to the rafters. This is far from encouraging people on board. State services are driving them away.
I want to speak specifically about school transport. School transport, which of course is related to this issue, has increased its fees on parents who are battling with the fairy tale that is free education. There is an issue here I want to flag. The school bus is, for many young people, their first ever experience of public transport, and it is the beginning of kids seeing the benefit of it. We should make it free, increase the capacity, get parents out of the school run chaos and get kids using public transport early.
Commuters are getting nothing extra for these increased fees. The National Transport Authority, NTA, has said that 4.5% fewer passengers will use public transport next year because of these increases. The Government is rowing back on the relative progress made by the previous Government in lowering public transport fees. At a time when we should be making climate decisions that can be made in the here and now, the Government is encouraging people back into their cars, into traffic and the long and stressful commutes. If the Government provides a service for rural communities, they will use it. The Local Link in places like north Cork is usually full and so many people rely heavily on it. Let us have more of that and more service times that give rural people access to the local night-time economy through the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan. This is mind-boggling and I am shocked by 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