Free public transport has been “shown to work” and should be introduced in Ireland, the Independent Group will argue in the Dáil today. 

As part of a series of measures to reduce the cost of living, the Government slashed the cost of public transport fares by 20% in the spring. 

Budget 2023 made the change permanent, but Donegal TD Thomas Pringle says the Government should go even further and make public transport entirely free. 

“It’s very important that rural Ireland can access free and effective public transport,” he told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“For one, we’ve seen huge increases in the price of petrol over the last number of months. 

“People in rural Ireland have no choice but to use a car. For example, Donegal has one of the highest levels of forced car use in the country because, if you want to live a reasonable life, you have to have a car. 

“So we need to ensure that rural transport is completely frequent, flexible, reliable and accessible as well. 

“I believe, if we do create that system, then more and more people will use it and there will be less and less demand for people to have a car in rural Ireland.” 

Mr Pringle added that, “It’s been shown that it works as well, which is very important.” 

Bus Éireann. Photo: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie

However, Professor Brian Caulfield, Associate Professor of engineering at Trinity College, said the money would be better spent investing in improvements in public transport. 

“I think the free part has been estimated to cost about €600 million,” he said. 

“So that would be about 30% of the budget for 2023 for sustainable transport, if it were to be provided for free. 

“I think that €600 million would be much better spent on doing the second part, about making it more accessible.

“To put it in context, €600 million was about half the cost of the cross city Luas extension.

“It’s a hell of a lot of money and I think it would be much better put back into the service as opposed to making the service free.” 

Luas ticket machines.

Over the summer, Germany introduced a monthly €9 ticket that allowed the purchaser to travel across the country with minimal tickets. 

It was hugely popular with the general public and Chancellor Olaf Scholtz described it as “one of the best ideas we've had”.

However, critics say the scheme did relatively little to get people out of their cars and at a cost of €2.5 billion was hugely expensive. 

“Only about 10% of the trips that happened because of reduction in fares were trips that would have been taken place with a car,” Professor Caulfield added. 

“So I’d much rather investment in a really good bus service in Donegal and rural Ireland because those are the areas that have transport poverty, that have forced car ownership and they’re spending a lot on transport than people in, say, Dublin or Cork or Limerick.”

Main image: Irish Rail train at Heuston Station in Dublin