Fare increase comes as Government spends 100m per month on fossil fuel subsidies for cars. And as commuters suffer ghost buses, delays and overcrowding, say opposition TDs. Minister claims they will fix ghost buses, overcrowding, delays, and provide new services.The Government has to live in the real world and do not have money up the wazoo to spend on everything, the Minister of State for rural transport, Jerry Buttimer, has said in the Dil in response to a motion not to increase public transport fares in the New Year. Aidan Farrelly, a Social Democrats TD for Kildare North, who put forward a motion to stop the fare increase, said: Simply put, the decision to increase public transport fares makes no sense. It makes no political sense, it makes no policy sense, and from a cost-of-living perspective and from a climate action perspective, the impact of congestion on our mental and physical health perspective fails all the checks. Why on earth would the Government pursue it?During the debate, the motion to halt the fare increase was, as one source put it, amended to mean nothing essentially, before Government TDs voted for it and the opposition voted against it. The Minister of State will undoubtedly tell us about record levels of investment in public transport, record levels of passengers, and that in comparison to our EU neighbours we are not doing too badly. We should all be very clear in this House that the Government is attempting to undo and undermine every positive step achieved regarding public transport policy and the modal shift in recent years, he said.Deputy Farrelly said: This tone deaf decision will impose additional costs on commuters, workers, students and families when people are already struggling to put food on the table or heat their homes.As policymakers, we have not even scratched the surface when it comes to the potential of public transport. We were getting there; it was arguably the finest legacy of the Fine Gael, Fianna Fil and Green Party Government. For some reason, whether it is a shift in political priorities from moving people to moving cars, roads budgets rather than Public Service Obligation budgets, it is different now, he added.Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Sen Canney, said: I think everybody who has spoken and the Government have the same thing in mind, which is to have a public transport system that does not have ghost buses, that is on time, that provides frequency and that gets the nurses and people to school and work and does so efficiently.He said: Every public transport service we put in place is subsidised. There is no public transport service making a profit. I think I heard the work sustainable from Deputy Farrelly. I have listened in this House over the past two years to people criticising the services they have or do not have, such as signage not being right, missing buses and all of that.That is what we intend to correct. I just want to say that, so that everybody will have a public transport service that they can rely on and that they can use and continue to use rather than have to contemplate buying a car. That is my role in all of this, he said.Minister Canney said: I was talking to members of the Cork Chamber of Commerce. Again, they told me there is a problem with overcrowding. There is an overcrowding problem in Galway. We are going to rectify that, but what we have to do is have public transport on a sustainable level from the start. The fare adjustments are necessary to help address the cost of increases experienced across public transport. They will also contribute to the continued delivery and expansion of key transport programmes including BusConnects, Connecting Ireland and Dart+, Minister Canney said. He said that fare revenue contributes to approximately 38% of the public service obligation routes nationally, which is below the European average of 44%, meaning it requires significant Exchequer funding. Despite huge subsidies to private motoring, Canney repeatedly referred to taxpayer-funded public transport as subsidised and at one point, even called it subsidised transport when outlining that the cost of providing services has risen in recent years.Minister Canney added: While maintaining affordable fares remains a key objective for this Government, it is equally important for passengers to ensure that sufficient resources are available to introduce new routes, increase service frequencies, improve reliability, enhance accessibility and connect more communities to public transport.Paul Donnelly, a Sinn Fin TD for Dublin West, said: The mixed messages coming from the Government are infuriating people. On the one hand, the Government talks about developing sustainable public transport systems, investing in active travel and encouraging people out of cars and onto public transport, but here we have an increase in public transport costs. It makes no sense whatsoever.The Government should be using the billions we have in extra taxes to invest in public transport now, specifically more buses, more trains, better active travel and cycling lanes, he said.Deputy Donnelly said: We have a more expensive and deteriorating bus service in Dublin West. People are deeply frustrated with ghost buses, electronic noticeboards that do not work and trains that are rammed. Irish Rail tells us that it is at capacity, and no extra carriages will be available soon.He said the development of 18,000 new homes in Dunsink is planned but that the National Transport Authority tells us that the public transport system it is based on the Luas is years away. The NTA will not even look at its provision until the mid-2030s, while Metro West from Tallaght through Blanchardstown to the airport has been knocked on the head until at least 2042. It has also been downgraded to a Luas line.Ciarn Ahern, a Labour TD for Dublin South West, said: Anyone who knows about and cares about public transport, climate or quality of life is baffled by this decision. The only way that this could possibly make sense, in the context of a cost-of-living crisis, extremely healthy public finances and a climate crisis, is if the Government is actively trying to drive down numbers on public transport because of the massive capacity constraints we are currently seeing on our train and bus routes.This must be seen as an acceptance by this Government of its own failures to add capacity to our public transport routes, he said.He said: There has been a sustained failure over decades to invest in more buses, train carriages, lines and routes. Now, when people want to use public transport, the Government is either unable or unwilling to respond by providing the necessary extra capacity, so it puts the fares up to help to manage the issue.Deputy Ahern added: Government backbenchers have expressed their concern about these fare hikes in committee and on social media. If that concern is genuine, they should put their money where their mouths are and stop the crocodile tears. They have a vote and should use it to support this motion.Mark Ward, a Sinn Fin TD for Dublin Mid West, said: The Government wants to get people out of cars and onto public transport, so one would think that the very first thing it would do is make public transport more accessible. Increasing public transport fares in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis is bonkers.Not only is the Government expecting people to pay more, but it is actually asking them to pay more for less. Services are not being delivered, and ghost buses are becoming the norm. Major public transport projects are years behind schedule. In my area, we have the Clonburris development. There will be over 10,000 homes there, he said.Deputy Ward added: The continual delays to Dart+ South West have had a huge impact on residents. I am frequently contacted by residents who bought homes in a strategic development zone. This was approved and fast-tracked on the promise of sustainable, high-frequency, high-capacity public transport. Instead, homeowners, residents and commuters have been left with an under-resourced rail service that is already failing to cope with the current demand. Peak-hour services are constantly beyond capacity.Sinad Gibney, Social Democrats TD for Dublin Rathdown, said: I am just shocked. Two years into this Governments handling of many different challenges in this society, this one just screams out of touch. It is not just that it is on top of a cost-of-living crisis, soaring rents and house prices, soaring energy prices and people squeezed at every single juncture of their lives. It is that the Government chooses to increase public transport costs.She said: It is genuinely mind-boggling that it has chosen to do it. It is not just that we are in an energy and climate crisis where we are not reaching our targets by any stretch of the imagination, and where the Government has signalled that it is happy to just take the hit on EU fines rather than do the work to invest in a just transition that could benefit our economy, society and the globe.Deputy Gibney added: I take this moment to reiterate what our vision of a social democracy is. It is where you pay your taxes and, in return, you get a suite of public services like transport, healthcare, education, childcare, disability services and climate mitigation. This Government does not seem to get that. It instead seems to see relying on the market, privatisation where it can and lining the pockets of corporate interests that lobby it day by day as the best way to resolve all of the crises we face as a society.Minister of State for rural transport Buttimer said: All of us in the House share a common position. We want to see public transport available and to be accessible, reliable and improved for all people who use public transport.I am not immune or removed from reality. I heard Deputy Gibneys remarks, who I have great respect for, but I live in the real world. I do not need her to tell me about the cost of living. She does not need to tell me about what is happening in my constituency. I am out and about every day. I am an ordinary person; I am a gnthdhuine. I walk around my people. I live among my people, and I know what is happening, he said.Minister Buttimer said: I am not going to have a row, but let us live in the real world. The Government has increased the pot of money for the Department [of Transport]. We do not have money up the wazoo to spend on everything. We have made choices. We are making the choice to improve the electrification of the fleet, connect more people, improve commuter rail, the Luas for Cork and MetroLink.The Minister for State added that he did not hear the opposition talking about the improvements in services in previous years, including Connecting Ireland, which has massively expanded rural bus routes. Although the expansion of services was mainly under the last government and has been largely paused for the last year or so.Deputies have spoken about the cost of living. The Government has intervened repeatedly to support and assist people, as it should. I understand that affordability is a key priority, but we must achieve balance in the terms of the need for service improvement, expanding the network, enhancing reliability and providing the better public transport we all want. I pay tribute to the men and women who work in our public transport system because they do phenomenal work, said Minister Buttimer. Jennifer Whitmore, a Social Democrats TD for Wicklow, said: The Government is currently paying 100 million per month in excise cuts for fossil fuel subsidies for cars. This is 70 million. I ask the Minister of State to change his decision on this.I just want to get something straight. At a time when the UN is warning that we are about to breach 1.5C global warming; when transport emissions in Ireland are stubbornly high, year in and year out; when 70% of all daily trips are made in private cars; and when we are facing 26 billion in fines from the EU for not meeting our climate targets, this is the Governments answer when it comes to public transport, she said.Deputy Whitmore said the move was being made when the M50 is at a standstill every day, when the wars in Ukraine and Iran have hit the most vulnerable people in our communities who are unable to pay for their energy and their fuel. She said the policy is nonsensical, regressive and is not based on any of the evidence.The full transcript of the debate can be read at KildareStreet, and it can currently be viewed here.