Luas: fare dodgers

The Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) has contracted plain-clothes employees to inspect Luas tickets every eight weeks.

The inspectors are carrying out an audit in order to determine how many passengers are still getting on board without paying for their tickets.

A spokeswoman for Veolia transport said: "There has been a company employed to carry out a ticket audit of the Luas every eight weeks. They are tasked with reporting back their statistics to the RPA on how many non-valid tickets they come across".

The initiative is understood to be the latest bid to bring down the number of passengers who are boarding the tram without tickets, despite uniformed security being present.

The plain-clothes inspectors also check to ensure tickets are not forged.

Fraudsters have previously forged bus and Luas tickets, with some selling the fake travel cards for Dublin Bus and Luas on internet advertising sites such as Gumtree.

The Luas collects almost €455,000 a year in fines – the standard fine for not having a ticket is €45.

Meanwhile, a 'smartcard' ticket, which was due to enable commuters to hop between Luas, Dublin Bus and trains will not be available until the end of next year, despite the initiative being first announced 10 years ago.

The smartcard scheme is expected to cost the taxpayer in the region of €50m.

The cards will enable passengers to swipe their card across a magnetic reader at the start and end of each journey, while a computer system deducts the fare from the passengers account.

A pilot scheme is expected to be put in place by the end of this year.