Human life will exist on Mars before contactless payments for Dublin’s public transport system is rolled out, a Fine Gael TD has said.
Deputy Grace Boland, a Fine Gael TD for Dublin Fingal West, said a report from the National Transport Authority (NTA) saying contactless payments may not be available on Dublin Bus and rail services until 2028 shows a complete disregard for public transport users. She said contactless payments for public transport must be a priority for the NTA to keep us in line with other European countries.
Deputy Boland said: “It is absolutely ridiculous that in 2025 commuters are still waiting for this to happen. We are being left behind our European counterparts who have had this technology for years.
"London has had contactless payments on their buses since 2012, Milan has had it since 2018, and the Netherlands became the first country to launch a fully contactless public transport payments system nationwide in 2023. At the snails pace we are going at, Elon Musk will have colonised Mars and Manchester United will have built a new 100,000 capacity stadium before people in this country get contactless payments for public transport."
On routes operated by Dublin Bus, passengers can only pay by coins if they don’t have a Leap card and no change is given onboard. Deputy Boland said almost everyone is using a smartphone now so there should be an option to pay using contactless technology.
She added: “In 2018 we were told it would take two years, in 2022 we were told it would be in place by 2023 - 2024, and in 2023 we were told it would be in place in 2025. Yet there’s still no sign of this happening any time soon.
“And we are told now it could be 2028. This is absolutely ridiculous.
In the NTA’s 2016 annual report, the authority noted the international trend was towards ticketing which accepted smartphones, contactless bank cards and other unique IDs. Accordingly, the Authority commenced a long-term work programme to prepare a coherent roadmap for the next evolution of the Leap Card scheme.
Deputy Boland continued: “I remember former Dublin MEP Brian Hayes calling for this in 2014. This is how far back we are going.
“If we can’t get contactless payments then we need to see some innovation from the NTA with alternative options put forward. Why not introduce an app where public transport users can buy and display their tickets? Or introduce digital Leap cards?
“Our capital city is continuing to grow with more people arriving to the city to live, work and socialise and so we need to be doing everything we can to make life easier for commuters and visitors to our city. The NTA are showing no respect for commuters and tourists by continuously delaying this. We cannot continue to see Ireland as an outlier compared to our European counterparts in not being able to facilitate contactless payments on public transport.
“I’m calling on the NTA and Minister Darragh O’Brien to prioritise getting this infrastructure in place before 2028. We cannot ask commuters to wait any longer for this essential service.”
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