Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 April 2019
17. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to lower fares to encourage uptake of public transport in relation to BusConnects plans; if he has reviewed the increase in fares across public transport since 2011; his views on whether the present fare structures may be discouraging uptake; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15153/19]
View answerAs Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. I am not involved in the day-to-day operations of public transport, nor decisions on fares. Following the establishment of the National Transport Authority (NTA) in December 2009, the NTA is the statutory body with responsibility for the regulation of fares charged to passengers in respect of public transport services, provided under public service contracts.
The NTA also has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public transport services by way of public transport services contracts in respect of services that are socially necessary but commercially unviable.
The funding of those services comprises both the fares paid by passengers and the subvention payments from the Exchequer. The main purpose of the subvention payment is to meet the gap between income from fares and the cost of operating services. In 2019, the Irish Exchequer will provide just over €300m in subvention for public service obligation (PSO) transport services and Rural Transport Local Link services.
The BusConnects programme for Dublin will see the transformation of Dublin's bus system, so that journeys by bus will be fast, reliable, punctual, convenient and affordable. Part of this programme is to simplify the fares structure, to encourage interchange between services and modes of travel and to reduce boarding times.
A revised fare structure is required for transport in the city which will easily allow seamless movement between different transport services without financial penalty. The last NTA fares determination published in October 2018, follows on from the 2017 determination by taking another step toward this new fare structure.
Under BusConnects the NTA proposes to move to two main fares namely, a short distance similar to the current 1-3 stages fare on buses in Dublin and a 90-minute fare which will allow travel on bus, LUAS or DART or any combination of those three PSO public transport services for 90 minutes. In its last fares determination, the NTA adjusted the Dublin City bus fares towards the two fare system. However, it will take at least one other fares determination later this year, before the two fare system is finally in place.
Last year we saw an increase of almost 16 million passenger journeys provided by Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, Irish Rail, Luas and Go-Ahead Ireland on PSO services. That is an increase of over 6% compared to 2017. I think the Deputy would agree that this increase in passenger growth is very positive. The growth in public transport services has been supported by higher levels of subvention in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and as I mentioned earlier it was increased again this year to provide a total allocation of over €300m.
Finally, the €8.6bn capital investment programme for public transport under Project Ireland 2040 will also allow us to continue investing in our public transport to ensure we can accommodate the future growth in passenger numbers in the years ahead.
