Personally, I think this is unfair that when somebody makes a genuine effort to pay at the barrier that they get stung for a penalty fare. Yes, you aren't supposed to get on a train without a ticket, but the general impression most people have is that it is OK to travel without a ticket and sort it out at the other end. The people on this site know that this is no longer the case but the occasional train user is quite likely to have a very different impression.
It is fair enough that Irish Rail have changed their policy on this level of enforcement, but I don't think it is made sufficiently obvious that travelling without a ticket in no longer acceptable except in situations where the ticket machines are all out of order.
The fact is that people in this country are very much used to seeing all sort of official signs with inconsistent messages and that bear very little relation to reality. That is the way the place is run, so a little sign on the ticket machine is simply not going to cut it. The sign needs to be very obvious, huge and state something along the lines of "DO NOT GET ON A TRAIN WITHOUT A TICKET - YOU WILL BE FINED". Probably, it needs to be in Irish as well - and hanging over the ticket barriers where you can't miss it.
From the photo earlier in the thread, I assume that the notice is the panel stuck over the the Irish version of the "Ticket Sales" logo. There is so much junk stuck onto the machine between leap card ads, a student ticket ad and something for a shop that a little sticker with a "i" logo in the same colour and general shape as a Facebook icon would be easily ignored in peripheral vision as just more junk.
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