Contactless transport at Dublin Airport
Grace Boland criticises poor access to Leap cards and the delayed rollout of contactless payment for visitors using Dublin public transport. The Taoiseach will raise the matter with the responsible Minister and agencies.
Our airports and ports are the front door to this country, but we are making public transport unnecessarily difficult for visitors from the moment they arrive. Visitors still need a Leap card or the exact coins to use a Dublin Bus service. As we know, contactless tap-and-go is not expected to be fully rolled out in Dublin only until 2028. Leap cards are regularly sold out at Dublin Airport at the few retail outlets that sell them. There are regular reports of people being unable to buy Leap cards. There is a clear lack of visible information for passengers arriving at the airport on where they can purchase them. The reality is that visitors can land in Ireland and still struggle to pay for a simple bus journey into the city. It is not rocket science. Will the Taoiseach please talk to the Minister for Transport and ask him to instruct the NTA to liaise with both Dublin Airport and Dublin Port to make sure that we install Leap card machines so that visitors to our country can easily access the city?
Comment on this
In fairness, the NTA and the airport regularly engage, and resources have been made available. However, I will speak to the Minister in respect of the general area. He is well aware of it. Again, the airport authorities and the NTA have a lot of resources. They have a lot of their own resources, or the airport certainly has. There are times too when these agencies need to get on with it. It is not always at the Minister's desk.