The National Transport Committee (NTA) has been asked to appear before the Oireachtas Transport Committee over increases in public transport fares.
The Transport Committee’s Chairperson confirmed the NTA has been invited to appear before it on 16 September.
Fine Gael TD Michael Murphy said the committee wants to have “an early opportunity to scrutinise the recent decision on public transport fares”.
He said decisions “which directly affect hundreds of thousands of passengers should be subject to proper and timely parliamentary scrutiny”.
He said: “At a time when we are trying to persuade more people to leave the car at home and use public transport, there are legitimate questions as to whether increasing fares sends the right signal.
“Passengers shouldn’t simply be presented with a fare increase as a fait accompli. The NTA should come before the Committee, explain the rationale for the decision and set out what alternatives were considered before asking passengers to pay more.”
Mr Murphy said there is a “cost-of-living dimension to this”
“For people commuting to work or college every day, even relatively modest increases accumulate over the course of a week, a month and a year,” he said.
Mr Murphy said the NTA will have an opportunity to “explain and defend” the fare increases.
Fare increases will allow for expansion – minister
Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien has said fare increases on public transport will allow for the expansion of new and existing services across the network.
“There will be about 140 additional services next year in 2027 which will mean there will be more choice for people,” he told RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh.
Mr O’Brien said the new routes would be announced “very shortly” and said there will also be “improved reliability and improved frequency” on existing services.
He said there were 365 million journeys taken on public transport last year, which is a record.
“I know a lot of people don’t want to see fares increase but we’ve also protected and ensured that the young adult fare is 50% of the main fare, the student fare is a further 33% reduction of the child fare and we also have about a quarter of our population who can travel for free in Ireland across all of our public transport,” he said.
Mr O’Brien said it costs about €1.6 billion to run public transport services across the country.
“That is paid for between direct exchequer funding through the Public Service Obligation (PSO) and fares but … I want to see routes improve, I want to see new services in place, and this will allow a very significant expansion right the way across our country,” he said.
“We’re also seeing in other parts of the country where there aren’t fare increases so it’s a 15% average,” he added.
“I think it’s targeted in that regard to make sure it’s targeted towards new services, and I will be seeking additional funding in the Budget negotiations to go even a step further in that regard.”