Councillors blast transport fare increases as 'outrageous' and 'irresponsible'

The National Transport Authority are set to introduce an average 15% fare increase for buses and trains, which several Dublin city councillors state goes against their active travel goals and merely punishes the city's poorest and most marginalised residents

Add to preferred sources News Stephen Holland Local Democracy Reporter 16:10, 03 Sep 2026 View Image A TFI Leap Card (Image: TFI)

An average 15% fare increase for buses and trains has been slammed by local councillors as one step too far in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.

The National Transport Authority is reportedly announcing new measures and fare changes on Thursday. This will see the cost of a Transport for Ireland 90-minute fare increase from €2 over a period of an hour and a half to €2.30.

While the incoming changes will see some costs for children and young adults fall, specific fares will rise by as much as 30%. These changes come at a time when public opposition to a cost-of-living crisis can be strongly felt, as seen from the fuel protests that occurred across the country last April.

Green Party spokesperson for transport Councillor Feljin Jose said the increase goes against Dublin City Council’s active travel goals and will end up costing commuters who travel to and from work every day hundreds of euro extra per year. “Especially people commuting long distances, it's going to cost them a lot of money,” he told Dublin Live.

Cllr Jose said that his party has consistently called for fare reductions and targeted discounts for young people. “We called for more measures to encourage more people to use public transport. Instead, the government is increasing fares while cutting taxes elsewhere,” he said.

“The reaction to the fuel protests by the government was to cut taxes and to call the Dáil back during recess to maintain that. And this year we saw that the government gave tax breaks to Supermac's and McDonald's and all the big restaurant chains. If you're sitting at home reading that they're actually going to increase public transport fares to pay for all this, you'd be pretty annoyed.

“I live in Phibsborough and for me to go into town was €1.50, that was the short fare. It's now €2. It's a 50 cent increase per journey. Twice a day that's a euro a day, it's over €300 a year. I didn't get an excise cut, I didn't get a VAT cut on my restaurant.

“We’re in a cost-of-living crisis, we're in a climate crisis . We saw yesterday the UN report saying that reducing global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees is now lost. We have to do our best to mitigate against and prepare for that reality. But the Irish government is making it more difficult and more expensive to use public transport.”

Green Party Cllr Hazel Chu called the increase “irresponsible” and it impacts “the most marginalised and poorest in our society” the most. She pointed out an increase of 20 million passenger journeys (6%) from 2024 to 2025. She attributed this increase to lower transport fares, stating “the data clearly shows” an uptick in usage when fares are reduced.

People Before Profit Cllr Conor Reddy described the increase as "outrageous,” as higher fares will only dissuade people from using public transport and increase traffic congestion. He highlighted PBP’s alternative budget, which for years has supported free public transport across the board.

“The Ireland I want to live in is one where people don't spend hours of their lives sitting in gridlock on congested roads. People should be able to get onto free, frequent public transport that they can rely on to take them where they need to go, supported by safe walking and cycling routes and park-and-rides that connect people into the network,” he said.

“Public transport can be cheaper, quicker, more reliable and more efficient than the private car. How we approach it as ecosocialists is how we would approach transition generally, transition can and should mean improving living standards, as well as mitigating the threat of ecological collapse”

Cllr Reddy said the fuel crises caused by Russia's war on Ukraine and the United States' war on Iran should also force a longer-term rethink of Ireland's transport, energy and security policies. “We need to learn something from these crises and take our long-term resilience seriously. We can't protect ourselves from international shocks while remaining so reliant on private cars and imported fossil fuels,” he said.

Sinn Féin too believe the fare increases fly in the face of logic, with Cllr Daithí Doolan telling Dublin Live “we need to make sure that the price of public transport is brought down, not increased”. He said that, at a time when people are “pushed to the pin of their collar” and “every penny counts,” that this increase reflects short-term thinking from those making the decisions.

Cllr Doolan said he issues a public appeal for the decision to be reversed as it is a "regressive" measure that will primarily impact low-income families and working-class people. He stressed that council tenants have been hit with a rent increase and this only pushes struggling people further into poverty.

“Of course they’ll patronise us and lecture us and say ‘It's only a couple of cents here and there’. But when you have very little in your wallet, that couple of cents can make the difference between travelling and not travelling, getting food, paying the rent, paying for your children's school books,” he said.

“It comes at a time when kids are going back to school and parents are having to dig deep in their pockets to pay for back-to-school costs and paying for other essential items.

“On one hand we're trying to make public transport accessible and reliable, and on the other the powers that be are putting barriers in our way. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, and unfortunately the right hand is dominating the debate by increasing the cost of public transport.”

Speaking after the budget announcement last October, Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien said fare increases were a possibility. He said that there must be a “sustainable” model for public transport. “I think, for the last six years, the expansion of public transport services has been great, but we need the funding to back that up,” he said.

Minister O’Brien said at the time that any fare system must remain “affordable”. While some might argue an average 15% fare increases still constituents as affordable, the response from opposition politicians within Dublin City Council suggests otherwise.

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

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