THE NATIONAL BUS and Rail Union has come out in support of the Government’s plan to slash public transport fares by 20%, but it has warned that any gaps on funding “will not be plugged” by staff. 

A temporary 20% reduction in fares was announced yesterday and will start from April and continue for the rest of 2022. 

It was part of a raft measures announced to ease the cost of living crisis.

The government says it will benefit 800,000 daily users and will apply to Bus Éireann, Iarnród Éireann, Dublin Bus, Go Ahead, Luas, DART and Local Link.

NBRU general secretary Dermot O’Leary told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme that there is concern over the cost for the fare discount, which will cost the exchequer €54 million. 

“We don’t know where that money is coming from. We had no sight of anything in that gap being plugged,” he said. 

While the fare discounts are “ostensibly a good news story”, O’Leary said the union had not been consulted about the initiative. 

“If they want us to cover the cost of this there will be disputes in public transport,” he added. 

The NBRU is supportive of not just the discount but free transport across the board, and O’Leary said a path needs to be charted to provide this. 

When asked whether there may be a risk to any planned pay rises, he said he could “foresee a situation” where the union is told “because of this measure it’s not a position to fund any pay rises”.

“Staff certainly will not be plugging the gap on this funding,” he said. 

The move will increase the need to address capacity issues, with O’Leary pinpointing Irish Rail in particular, especially as passenger numbers had been on the increase prior to the pandemic. 

The general secretary said he was concerned that plans for a new bus fleet may also be dashed by the discount fares due to a lack of consultation and planning.