In April 2022, I was pleased to support the cut in public transport fares in the aftermath of Covid by between 20% and 50%, depending on what kind of ticket passengers were using. At that time, the rationale was expressed that lower fares made public transport more attractive and more accessible and, therefore, more people used it. That is obviously desirable. It now seems that the Government is suggesting that is not the case or that there is not an evidence-based approach that suggests that lower fares allow more people to use public transport. The reality is that there are ancillary benefits to more people using public transport, such as reductions in emissions and congestion, etc. What is the evidence base for this decision that will lead to a significant increase of 15% in public transport fares? Is this something we could mitigate in some other way?

That was not the consideration. The more fundamental point is Government expenditure ceilings, which are set by the Minister for Finance and the Minister for public expenditure. Every Department has to operate within those ceilings. Most Deputies want us to expand services. Deputy Ward is correct insofar as the numbers of people on public transport have grown exponentially, which is a great thing. Then others - correctly, by the way - want more services. We need more services. One of the bigger issues this year has been the demand from Deputies representing their constituencies for more services across the board. Some 140 additional services will be announced for 2027. It is not an easy choice. I would prefer if we never had to increase fares but we are doing so. This year, the budget will be about €8.5 billion and about €7 billion of that will be public expenditure. However, there are ceilings to it and Ministers have to operate and make choices on how to do things.