Dublin Bus has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn over a controversial increase in fares this week. The company will reduce six of the 10 new fares on Monday after the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, intervened.
While the Government sanctioned a 9 per cent increase in fares, one of the new ticket prices was 25 per cent more expensive and others were 15 per cent dearer.
The company had claimed that all fares would rise by an average of only 9 per cent when smaller increases in the cost of pre-paid tickets were taken into account.
However, in a statement yesterday, Dublin Bus said the CIÉ chairman, Dr John Lynch, had asked it to review the new fares "to ensure a more equitable redistribution".
When asked whether the fares introduced last Monday had been sanctioned by Dr Lynch, a CIÉ spokesman said: "The fares originally proposed were put forward by Dublin Bus and they were not sanctioned by the chairman of CIÉ."
Mr Brennan's spokesman said the Minister had expressed concern about the new fares last Monday and asked officials to raise it with the company. He also expressed these concerns on Tuesday at a meeting of the Oireacthas Joint Committee on Transport.
The committee's chairman, Mr Eoin Ryan, also met Dublin Bus this week.
The climb-down was welcomed by Opposition politicians. Fine Gael's transport spokesman, Mr Denis Naughten, accused Dublin Bus of "creative accounting". The Labour spokeswoman Ms Róisín Shorthall said the affair reflected no credit on the Department of Transport or on Dublin Bus.
The company accepted yesterday that the changes "may have caused some confusion" and pledged to charge the minimum fares of 80 cents for adults and 40 cents for schoolchildren next Saturday and on Saturday week.
In addition, three adult fares will decrease. The original €1.65 fare which rose to €2 will fall to €1.70. The original €1.30 fare which rose to €1.60 will fall to €1.40. In addition, the original 75 cents fare, which rose to 90 cents, will fall to 80 cents. The increase to €1.20 in the original €1.05 fare remains in place, as does the rise to €1.60 in the original €1.45 fare. A 5 cents rise in the original €2.95 fare also remains in place.
Each of the three children's fares will revert to their original rates next Monday. This reverses the increase to 50 cents in the original 40 cents schoolchild fare. Monday's rise to 60 cents in the 50 cents children's (under-16) fare has also been reversed, as has the increase in longer children's journeys from 75 cents to 80 cents.
Iarnród Éireann and Bus Éireann said their new fare structures would remain in place.
