Collins: Rural transport prices leaving users 'out of pocket'
Independent Ireland leader, Michael Collins has said that there is a need to address an “unjustifiable and discriminatory price differential leaving rural transport users out of pocket".
The Cork South-West TD raised the matter during a joint committee on transport and communications meeting in Leinster House yesterday (May 28).
Deputy Collins questioned representatives from the National Transport Authority (NTA) on government policy to withhold the application of a 20% fare reduction for commercial bus operators.
He believes the decision continues to provide a significant financial advantage to public service operators such as Bus Éireann, and needs to be reviewed.
Deputy Collins said: "People living in rural communities continue to be disadvantaged on the double through a lack of supporting transporting connectivity, and the application of fares that can be at least 100% more than those applied in Dublin when it comes to travelling the same distance. That must end.
“I accept that the NTA has made some positive moves toward rectifying this issue through the National Fare Strategy and indeed I received an explicit acknowledgement from the NTA Interim chief executive Hugh Creegan that the current system is creating inequities."
"The fact of the matter is the National Fare Strategy was published in 2023, and here we are over two years later and people in west Cork and other areas of rural Ireland are still being hammered through excessive fares," the TD added.
According to Deputy Collins, the strategy itself provides the example of a fare from Newtownmountkennedy in Co. Wicklow to Dublin.
He said that the fare cost €2.80 to travel 30km with a passenger uptake of 32,925.
Yet, he claimed, if someone travelled from Fermoy to another location in Co. Cork, a distance of 29km, the price jumped by 112% to €5.95.
"I believe the failure to include our excellent commercial bus operators, who make up the significant transport deficit in rural Ireland, in the 20% fare reduction policy has contributed to this."
"They still must buy the same fuel as Dublin or PSO operators. They still must pay driver wages, but they receive none of the preferential treatment and thereby lose the ability to decrease fares or offer fares in line with those offered elsewhere," he said.
Deputy Collins also raised in the committee hearing the issue of existing licensing requirements for rural taxi drivers.
The requirements for those seeking to enter or operate in the rural taxi and hackney sector are “outdated and needlessly restrictive", according to the Independent Ireland leader.
He believes this is having a "dire impact" on the connectivity options available to people living in rural Ireland.
The TD said: "We all recall that during the dark days of the pandemic the taxi and hackney sector was brought to the brink of collapse, leading to a major national protest.
"But even then, there was a partial acceptance by government that the sector provides a vital transport infrastructure lifeline for hundreds of thousands of people who rely on it to access basic levels of connectivity," he added.
