Dublin City Council set to back call to reverse public transport fare hikes

Dublin City Council is set to back calls tonight for the NTA’s planned public transport fare increases to be reversed.

A number of emergency motions on the issue will be discussed at this evening’s meeting.

People Before Profit councillor Conor Reddy has said he will call on Dublin City Council to write directly to the Transport Authority and the Minister for Transport demanding that the fare increases be reversed.

With Fianna Fáil part of the governing coalition on Dublin City Council, it will remain to be seen if Fianna Fáil councillors will criticise fellow party member Darragh O’Brien for his role in the controversy, with the Dublin Fingal East TD serving as Minister for Transport.

Reddy said the cost-of-living crisis is not the time to increase public transport costs, and said the planned hikes go against Dublin City Council’s plans to get people out of cars and use more public transport.

Cllr Reddy’s motion links the fare hikes to the cost-of-living crisis, traffic congestion, air quality, transport emissions and Dublin City Council’s own objective of shifting more journeys from private cars to public transport, walking and cycling.

Last week, it was announced that fares in the Dublin area will increase by an average of 15% from 2027, while the short trip fare will rise by 33%, from €1.50 to €2.

When the Greens were part of the last government, they negotiated for the introduction of a €2, 90-minute fare, and with the Greens out of government, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have set about dismantling anything vaguely environmental from government policy.

Reddy said, “there is now a clear message coming from Dublin City Council: these fare hikes are the wrong decision and they should be reversed.”

“People are already being squeezed by rent, mortgages, food, energy and everyday bills. Increasing the cost of getting to work, college, school or appointments in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis is totally wrong,” the Ballymun-Finglas councillor said.

The People Before Profit councillor said “Dublin is already choked with traffic. We are constantly told that we need to get people out of cars and onto public transport, yet at the same time the NTA is making public transport more expensive. That undermines the Council’s objectives and makes no sense if the NTA’s objective is to improve and increase utilisation of public transport across the country.”

Reddy said, “the council vote is important, but we also need pressure from outside the chamber.”

He stated, “these increases are not inevitable. If enough people organise and make clear that they will not accept another attack on living standards, the government and the NTA can be forced to reverse them. We should be moving in the opposite direction to what the NTA has announced: cheaper, more frequent and more reliable public transport, with the bigger goal of making it free to use for everybody. Free and universally accessible public transport would put money back into people’s pockets, cut congestion and emissions, and make Dublin a better city to live in.”