Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 February 2022
242. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Transport if he will consider introducing free or heavily discounted public transport in the greater Dublin region on a trial basis to encourage the use of public transport and to alleviate the cost of living as part of Government plans in this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7582/22]
View answerAs Minister for Transport, 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.
It is the National Transport Authority (NTA) that has the statutory responsibility for the regulation of fares in relation to public passenger transport services and 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.
The provision of public transport services is heavily dependent on passenger fare revenue as it normally contributes about 65% of the operational cost. The remaining 35% of cost is covered by the PSO grant and the Department of Social Protection grant under the free travel scheme.
Prior to COVID-19, €287 million of Exchequer funding was provided for PSO services in Budget 2020; however, since 2020, additional funding has been required to continue to address the significant COVID impacts on public transport provision. All PSO providers are currently in receipt of emergency support funding to compensate for fare revenue loss arising as a result of the impact of Covid-19 on the sector, and the associated fall in passenger numbers (passenger numbers fell to below 10% of 2019 levels at the height of the restrictions in 2020 and 2021). Further, on 25/06/2020 Government approved the introduction of temporary financial supports for the licensed bus sector – commercial operators (in accordance with EU and national legislation).
In 2022, I secured €538m to support PSO services including over €200m to address COVID expenses (i.e. loss of fare revenue, cleaning costs). €9m of the €538m allocation has been provided as ongoing support for the licensed bus sector for the first three months of the year. While, over €15m has also been allocated to support Local Link regular service provision in rural Ireland.
The Government is strongly committed to helping combat the rising cost-of-living being experienced throughout the country. In this context, a suite of new measures is being introduced by Government to help with this issue, including a 20% average fare reduction on PSO services until the end of 2022. These discounted fares will benefit the hundreds of thousands of people across the country who use public transport every day. A further €54m in Exchequer funding has been secured to allow for the introduction of these discounted fares. This is in addition to the forthcoming introduction of the Young Adult Card (YAC), which will provide people aged between 19 and 23, with an average discount on fares of 50%.
The PSO programme represents a significant expenditure of taxpayers' money, and funding has increased in recent years to cater for additional services and growing capacity. Any assessment of a proposed change to public transport fare structures would be a matter for the NTA to consider in the first instance. Therefore, I have forwarded the Deputy's question to the NTA for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a response within ten working days.
