Contactless payments for public transport in Dublin are still "years away" from being rolled out, a transport chief has said.
Despite London having contactless payment on buses since 2012, the National Transport Authority is only beginning trials at the end of this month - over a decade later.
A new payment system could allow DART, Luas and Dublin Bus users to pay for fares using their bank card or mobile phone.
The trails will be run on rural services in Cavan and Monaghan, it has been reported. NTA Chief Executive Anne Graham told a meeting of Dublin city councillors the current system on Dublin Bus is "too old" to manage contactless payments.
She said: "We are trialling contactless payments but not in Dublin... Our current system on our bus system is too old to actually manage to deal with contactless payments. We do need new equipment which is part of the next generation ticketing.
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"What we are trialing [contactless payments] on our local link services and our rural services which have much more modern ticketing equipment which allows contactless payments to be made."
The NTA are in the middle of procuring new equipment that will facilitate the contactless payments but Ms Graham warned it is still "years" away from being rolled out.
"It will be in the months and years to get across all our services as you may remember how we rolled out leap card. We obviously want to do it quicker than that but it is a significant deployment of new infrastructure and new IT systems."
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