Sir, – Cllr Rory O’Connor (Letters, September 10th) has questioned the benefit to rural communities from Labour’s “climate ticket”, the €9 monthly fare that we have proposed, modelled on the successful German initiative taken earlier this year, to enable unlimited travel on public transport for everyone across the country. Your editorial on the proposal (September 10th) suggests that our proposal has a “whiff of idealism about it”.
In response, I would point out that the German scheme in just three months saved 1.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and caused a massive switch from private cars to trains and buses. With our own society facing an existential climate emergency, and Irish households struggling to cope with both an energy and a cost of living crisis, it is time that we legislators acted to introduce radical, imaginative and even idealistic measures that would positively impact both on our energy bills and on reducing our carbon emissions.
It’s time for the Government to heed our call and take this bold step. – Yours, etc,
IVANA BACIK TD,
Dáil Éireann,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2.