Human life will exist on Mars before contactless payments for Dublin’s public transport system is rolled out, a Fine Gael TD has said.
Dublin Fingal West TD Grace Boland, made the comments after a new report from the National Tranasport Authority showed that contactless payment on Dublin Bus and rail services may not be available until 2028.
Boland says the delay shows a “complete disregard” cor public transport users.
“Contactless payments for public transport must be a priority for the NTA to keep us in line with other European countries,” she said.
The Fine Gael TD said “it is absolutely ridiculous that in 2025 commuters are still waiting for this to happen; we are being left behind our European counterparts who have had this technology for years.”
“London has had contactless payments on their buses since 2012, Milan has had it since 2018, and the Netherlands became the first country to launch a fully contactless public transport payments system nationwide in 2023.”
Boland remarked “at the snails pace we are going at, Elon Musk will have colonised Mars and Manchester United will have built a new 100,000 capacity stadium before people in this country get contactless payments for public transport.”
The current practice on Dublin Bus sees commuters pay with exact change, with no change given, or with a Leap card, with no capability given to pay by contactless.
“Almost everyone is using a smartphone so there absolutely should be an option to pay using contactless technology,” she said.
“I remember former Dublin MEP Brian Hayes calling for this in 2014. This is how far back we are going,” she said.
“If we can’t get contactless payments then we need to see some innovation from the NTA with alternative options put forward. Why not introduce an app where public transport users can buy and display their tickets? Or introduce digital Leap cards?”
“Our capital city is continuing to grow with more people arriving to the city to live, work and socialise and so we need to be doing everything we can to make life easier for commuters and visitors to our city.
“The NTA are showing no respect for commuters and tourists by continuously delaying this. We cannot continue to see Ireland as an outlier compared to our European counterparts in not being able to facilitate contactless payments on public transport.
“I’m calling on the NTA and Minister Darragh O’Brien to prioritise getting this infrastructure in place before 2028. We cannot ask commuters to wait any longer for this essential service”, Boland added.