{"id":221463,"date":"2026-01-01T09:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/221463\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T09:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:45:07","slug":"transport-budget-too-small-for-new-services-in-2026-officials-admit-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/221463\/","title":{"rendered":"Transport budget too small for new services in 2026, officials admit \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government\u2019s transport budget for 2026 will not be enough for any new services, senior Department of Transport<\/a> officials privately warned. <\/p>\n

Records released under the Freedom of Information Act show that on the day of Budget 2026 in October, the department\u2019s management board met and noted its \u20ac4.74 billion allocation. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe allocation, while substantial, will not allow for new services to be delivered,\u201d minutes of the meeting show. However, it noted the amount \u201cwill allow for continued investment on major projects\u201d.<\/p>\n

Officials nonetheless believed the department secured a \u201cbetter position\u201d on the Public Services Obligation (PSO) \u2013 which contracts and provides funding for public transport services around the State \u2013 with \u20ac940 million earmarked for 2026, an increase of more than 40 per cent.<\/p>\n

The Opposition rounded on the Government in light of the information. Green Party<\/a> leader Roderic O\u2019Gorman<\/a> said the document was \u201cconfirmation\u201d that Fianna F\u00e1il <\/a>and Fine Gael<\/a> have not provided the funding for new public transport services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the figures for 2026 look big, they are just about funding existing services,\u201d he said. \u201cThere isn\u2019t enough in the Department of Transport\u2019s allocation for the roll-out of new services, promised in various glossy documents published by the Government, which would make a real difference in people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dublin West TD accused the Government of having an \u201cideological problem\u201d with public transport.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Commuter fares unchanged in budget, with funding also freed up for Dart improvementsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Department of Transport said its 2026 budget allocation \u201cprioritises the advancement of ongoing programmes and commitments in line with operational readiness and resource availability\u201d, citing the BusConnects<\/a> F-Spine in Dublin and new town services planned for Mullingar in 2026. <\/p>\n

He said the department must ensure that submissions made as part of the budget are within financial and governance parameters set by the exchequer, \u201crecognising that available resources are finite, and not all projects can be funded\u201d. <\/p>\n

The department continues to engage with the National Transport Authority (NTA)<\/a> as it finalises its 2026 service plan, the spokesman said.<\/p>\n

An NTA spokesman said it is still in discussions with the department about the plan for new services, \u201cin line with funding allocations, [and] operational and resource availability\u201d.<\/p>\n

The previous government, of which the Green Party was a part, had a 2:1 ratio of public transport funding over roads investment. However, an explicit commitment to such a split was abandoned in the programme setting out aims for the new Government\u2019s five-year term.<\/p>\n

Allocations made under the National Development Plan<\/a>, which covers the period from 2026 to 2030, earmark \u20ac10.1 billion for public transport projects and \u20ac9.7 billion for the road network and road safety. <\/p>\n

A separate note released under Freedom of Information laws shows the Department of Transport\u2019s management board met in October as it was preparing its sectoral programme for spending under the National Development Plan. <\/p>\n

The management board noted the department will \u201ccontinue to progress key projects, but that there will be impacts in some areas due to funding\u201d. <\/p>\n

The note also outlined that transport has a \u201csignificant role\u201d in supporting population growth and density and has \u201cpositive impacts\u201d on \u201cimplementing cross-government objectives such as housing and access to water\u201d. <\/p>\n

The National Development Plan allocated funding for several Dublin public transport projects, including the Luas<\/a> extension to Finglas, the Dart+<\/a> expansion programme and BusConnects. BusConnects projects are also being funded in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford over the 2026-2030 term.<\/p>\n

There are also plans to progress the long-awaited Navan rail line through planning during the period. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government\u2019s transport budget for 2026 will not be enough for any new services, senior Department of Transport…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29095,4478,7941,895,3775,8934,61,60,14350,3413,7942,43,3582],"class_list":["post-221463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-busconnects","tag-dart","tag-department-of-transport","tag-fianna-fail","tag-fine-gael","tag-green-party","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-luas","tag-national-development-plan","tag-national-transport-authority","tag-news","tag-roderic-o-gorman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}