THE NATIONAL TRANSPORT Authority (NTA) has defended the slow roll out of contactless payments on buses across the country, saying that the existing system is “very flexible”.

CEO of the NTA, Anne Graham, said that the authority wanted to deliver contactless payments “as quickly as possible” but that there were some obstacles with the existing system.

The Journal reported this weekend that contactless payments on buses is due to be trialled by the NTA, which will take place on a rural Local Link route in Cavan and Monaghan.

A spokesperson for Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said that the pilot was at an “advanced stage”.

“All going well, installation on the buses will be ready for the pilot to start by the end of May,” the spokesperson said.

However, Graham has said that it will be “years” before the system will be implemented across all bus services.

“Of course we want to get to a stage where we can allow people to use contactless bank cards to make their payments but we do have to build a new ticketing system in order to be able to do that because our current system is just not of an age that can support those kinds of payments,” Graham said.

“We need to replace all our ticketing system on our buses.”

Digital payment options on public transport, which allow people to tap their phones, smartwatches or debit cards, are available in other countries. In London, contactless payments for tube services have been available since 2014.

Graham said that contactless payments were possible on Local Link services as it was “much more modern”.

She defended the existing ticketing system, saying that it is already flexible through the use of Leap Cards.

“All we haven’t got at the moment is the facility to be able to use a bank card to pay for your ticket or pay for your journey and that is coming. We offer very flexible ticketing arrangements across all our services,” Graham said.

The Transport Minister also rejected criticism that Ireland was behind other European nations on public transport services, saying that there is a high number of people who use public transport.

“I think this depiction, ‘oh we’re doing worse than various european countries’, is not actually true when you measure public transport patronage. It’s rising significantly right across the country,” Ryan said.

Fianna Fáil TD for Dún Laoghaire, Cormac Devlin, was critical of the timeline set out by the NTA for implementing contactless payments.

“For too long, Dublin has been lagging behind other European cities when it comes to contactless payments, which would transform and encourage greater use of our public transport system,” Devlin said.

“A contactless approach would also encourage visitors to our city, who may not have a Leap Card or be familiar with the ticketing system, to use public transport.”