Public Transport and Fare Increases: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Denise Mitchell (SF), Dublin Bay North

On Friday last, I got an update from Dublin Bus on the performance of three of the main bus routes that serve my constituency. It states that the H1 route has unfortunately not achieved the target of punctuality in recent months. The H2 route has also has not achieved the target of punctuality in recent months, and I received the same answer for the H3 service. The Minister of State is telling commuters who are annoyed at being late to work, college or appointments that they need to pay more for a service that is either constantly delayed or does not show up. Seriously, is he for real?
We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. Everything is more expensive. The last thing we should be doing is hiking public transport fares and putting more costs on the people who get up early in the morning, as the Government likes to say. If we want people out of private cars, we should reduce transport fares and increase the number of people who are entitled to free public transport, particularly those under 18 years of age because what we will then see is those young people developing good habits at an early age. This is a slap in the face for ordinary people. I urge the Government to intervene and stop these fare hikes.

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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