Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 February 2022
199. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Transport if the 20% cut in public transport fares announced recently will apply to public service obligation routes which are operated under direct contract between a private operator and the National Transport Authority, rather than via the Rural Transport Programme and LocalLink such as Route 975 Cavan-Longford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9910/22]
View answer200. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Transport if public transport services are obliged to offer reduced rates for return, weekly and monthly journeys to all fare-paying passengers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9911/22]
View answer201. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Transport his plans to enable the use of Leap card payments on public transport services given the massive reduction in cash usage over the past two years given that this function is not available on LocalLink services and most private operators with contracts with the National Transport Authority in counties Cavan and Monaghan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9912/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 199 to 201, inclusive, together.
As 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 responsibility for the regulation of fares charged to passengers in respect of public transport services, provided under public service obligation (PSO) contracts.
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 REV22 allocations.
The NTA will work with the public transport operators in the coming weeks to commence rolling out these fare reductions across the public transport network in April/May. In light of the NTA's responsibility in this area, I have forwarded the Deputy's specific questions in relation to the particular types of services and routes involved in the scheme along with the use of Leap card payments on public transport services, to the NTA for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a response within ten working days.
