{"id":672998,"date":"2026-09-04T23:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/672998\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T23:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:08:18","slug":"increase-in-public-transport-fares-a-trumpian-policy-that-will-cost-lives-dublin-protest-told-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/672998\/","title":{"rendered":"Increase in public transport fares \u2018a Trumpian policy\u2019 that will \u2018cost lives\u2019, Dublin protest told \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The increase in public transport<\/a> fares confirmed this week is a \u201cTrumpian policy\u201d that will \u201ccost lives\u201d, a protest in Dublin heard on Friday.<\/p>\n

About 100 people attended the demonstration outside Government Buildings, organised by the Green Party<\/a>, after it was confirmed that adult fares on public transport are to increase by an average of 15 per cent from January<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government \u2013 Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael \u2013 they made a political choice,\u201d Green Party leader and TD Roderic O\u2019Gorman<\/a> told the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey decided that in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis<\/a>, a crisis that is recognised by everybody, they decided that workers, that students, that people who use the bus and the train, that they can afford to pay more.\u201d <\/p>\n

O\u2019Gorman accused some members of the Government of not using or valuing public transport.<\/p>\n

\"GreenGreen Party leader Roderic O\u2019Gorman said the fare increase was the fault of the Government, not the NTA. Photograph: \u00d3rla Ryan <\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, if you don\u2019t use the service, you don\u2019t value it. And the people who are making a decision about how we fund our buses and our trains, they don\u2019t step foot on the Dart, they don\u2019t step foot on the Dublin Bus service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting that the National Transport Authority<\/a> (NTA) is \u201cbeing hauled in before the Oireachtas transport committee\u201d later this month over the decision, O\u2019Gorman said: \u201cThis is not the fault of the NTA. This is a decision by Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orlagh Gaynor, of Irish Doctors for the Environment, said the decision to increase fares would \u201ccost lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake: this decision to raise fares is an attack on public health and wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaynor said thousands of people die every year from air pollution, noise pollution, stress and sedentary lifestyles \u2013 a situation that will worsen if more people opt to use cars over public transport. <\/p>\n

\"OrlaghOrlagh Gaynor, of Irish Doctors for the Environment, said the decision to\u00a0increase fares was \u2018an attack on public health and wellbeing\u2019. Photograph: \u00d3rla Ryan <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our patients who need public transport to attend our hospitals, to attend appointments. Our doctors, our healthcare workers, need to get to work. People need to be with their loved ones. This is an attack on public health, social justice and equity,\u201d Gaynor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes no sense economically or environmentally to continue to subsidise fossil fuels and raise public transport fares.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representatives from the Labour Party, People Before Profit and the Social Democrats also addressed the protest. <\/p>\n

Labour leader Ivana Bacik<\/a> said \u201chuge progress\u201d was made on public transport investment and cycling infrastructure when the Green Party was previously in government. However, she said much of this work was \u201cnow being reversed\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing instead is a Trumpian perspective, a Trumpian policy \u2013 roads baby, roads \u2013 and it\u2019s not good enough. And we have to resist it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LabourLabour leader Ivana Bacik described the Government’s transport policy as \u2018Trumpian\u2019. Photograph: \u00d3rla Ryan \"DanielDaniel Walsh, president of Aontas na Mac L\u00e9inn in \u00c9irinn, said the fare increase was\u00a0\u2018another kick in the teeth\u2019 for students. Photograph: \u00d3rla Ryan <\/p>\n

Daniel Walsh, president of Aontas na Mac L\u00e9inn in \u00c9irinn, the national representative body for third-level students, described the fare increase as \u201canother kick in the teeth\u201d for students who have in recent years faced a rise in college fees and accommodation costs. <\/p>\n

\u201cStudents are being doubly penalised by Government failures,\u201d Walsh said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe same students who are being forced to commute two, three, four, five hours a day because of the Government\u2019s failure to invest in the purpose-built student accommodation are now being told that come January they\u2019re going to be hit into the pockets and made to pay more for their commute to college.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Kennedy, from Drogheda, Co Louth, was one of the many students at the protest. He travels to Dublin for university and said the fare increase would have a big impact on him and others.<\/p>\n

\"StudentStudent Michael Kennedy said the fare increase was \u2018an attack on working class people\u2019. Photograph: \u00d3rla Ryan <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an attack on working class people and those of us who can\u2019t afford a car, those of us who can\u2019t afford to drive, can\u2019t afford lessons … this is just another expense being slapped on people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The increase in public transport fares confirmed this week is a \u201cTrumpian policy\u201d that will \u201ccost lives\u201d, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,2190,18,13,14,18577,6,19,17,9170,9171,11,12,15,16,13456,5,13421,34887,7,8],"class_list":["post-672998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-cost-of-living","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-green-party","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ivana-bacik","tag-labour-party","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-national-transport-authority","tag-news","tag-public-transport","tag-roderic-o-gorman","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117215292656364415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}