Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 October 2023
15. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Transport if he supports the abolition of fees for park-and-ride facilities at outer public transport stops, such as the Red Cow and Cheeverstown, to incentivise greater use of public transport and reduce car dependency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43108/23]
View answerAs the Deputy knows I’m a firm believer in public transport and its potential to improve people’s lives and contribute to emissions reduction.
I agree that we need to incentivise more people to use public transport.
That’s why this Government has supported –
• A reduction in public transport fares by 20% for all passengers;
• The introduction of the new Young Adults Card further reducing fares by 50% for younger adults;
• The introduction of the TFI90 fare;
• The roll-out of new BusConnects Dublin services, increasing frequencies and expanding routes;
• The roll-out of new Connecting Ireland services, increasing frequencies and introducing new services to parts of rural Ireland that have never had reliable public transport;
• The roll-out of new town services in places like Carlow and the enhancement of existing town services in places like Athlone;
• Investment in bus and rail fleet, increasing the attractiveness of our public transport network;
• The continued development of new public transport infrastructure like the BusConnects projects in every city, DART+, Cork Commuter Rail and MetroLink.
Incentivisation takes many forms and I think the wide range of incentives this Government has introduced is testament to our commitment to ensuring more people than ever before have access to reliable, efficient and accessible public transport.
Well situated park-and-ride sites have a role to play in expanding the offering of public transport services. There are a number of factors that account for the success, or otherwise, of a park-and-ride and an appropriate fee level is one of those factors. If people are to be incentivised to use park-and-ride sites then they need to be assured those sites will be available for use as intended. An appropriate fee structure helps with that by discouraging potential misuse of the site if no fee were applied and better creating the link between parking and public transport usage.
