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🇮🇪 Ireland /Energy & Infrastructure

Dublin protest brands public transport fare rise a “Trumpian policy” that will “cost lives”

From Irish Times · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • About 100 people protested in Dublin against an average 15% increase in adult public transport fares from January.
  • Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman blamed the government, rather than the National Transport Authority, for the decision.
  • Environmental and opposition speakers warned higher fares could push people toward cars and harm public health.

A planned increase in public transport fares is a “Trumpian policy” that will “cost lives,” protesters in Dublin were told on Friday.

Around 100 people gathered outside Government Buildings at a demonstration organized by the Green Party. Adult fares on public transport are due to rise by an average of 15 percent from January.

Ultimately, if you don’t use the service, you don’t value it.

· Roderic O’GormanThe Green Party leader criticized government decision-makers for not using public transport.

Green Party leader and TD Roderic O’Gorman said the government parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, had made a political choice during a cost-of-living crisis. He accused ministers of assuming that workers, students and other bus and train users could simply afford to pay more.

This is not the fault of the NTA. This is a decision by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

· Roderic O’GormanHe assigned responsibility for the fare increase to the government parties.

“Ultimately, if you don’t use the service, you don’t value it,” O’Gorman told the crowd. He said the people deciding how buses and trains are funded do not use the DART or Dublin Bus. He also said the increase was the government’s decision, not the responsibility of the National Transport Authority, which is due to appear before the Oireachtas transport committee later this month.

Orlagh Gaynor of Irish Doctors for the Environment called the decision “an attack on public health and wellbeing.” She said higher fares could encourage more people to drive, worsening the effects of air pollution, noise pollution, stress and sedentary lifestyles. Public transport, she added, is essential for patients traveling to hospitals, healthcare workers getting to work and people visiting loved ones.

Make no mistake: this decision to raise fares is an attack on public health and wellbeing.

· Orlagh GaynorThe environmental health representative warned about the consequences of higher fares.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said progress on public transport investment and cycling infrastructure made while the Greens were previously in government was now being reversed. She described the current approach as “roads baby, roads” and said it had to be resisted. Representatives of People Before Profit and the Social Democrats also addressed the protest.

What we’re seeing instead is a Trumpian perspective, a Trumpian policy, roads baby, roads, and it’s not good enough. And we have to resist it.

· Ivana BacikThe Labour leader criticized the government’s transport policy at the protest.
About this summary

Originally published by Irish Times in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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