But that can't be the whole story. First, Britain has a similar legal set-up to Ireland. Apparently, in Britain, if something goes wrong, the passenger is liable. They used to charge half-fare for dogs, but now, by not charging, the liability is shifted to the passenger - perhaps prompted by a culture of suing.
Besides, the rule on Dublin Bus is that dogs are allowed on board at the driver's discretion (though not all drivers realise this). On the Belfast and Cork lines, you still have to walk the dog along the platform to get to the van. So the legal reason doesn't really stand up.
There are several options open to IR. On internal services in the North, dogs are allowed in cages in the passenger area. Or it could be made possible to ring up IR in advance to check which trains are likely to be least crowded. They can do that for internet fares, so they can do it for passengers - yes, customers - with dogs.
My cage measures 90 x 60 x 60cm and holds two retrievers. In most of the railcars, there is plenty of room for this outside peak times. In the ICRs, there is still the wheelchair space, in which a wheelchair passenger obviously has priority. I don't know how big a cage for a great Dane would be.
Two years ago I counted six dogs (two were mine) spread out over the length of a Glasgow-Birmingham train. They were travelling with families, and you can be sure that if dogs weren't allowed, none of the accompanying humans would have gone by train. That's a lot of revenue to be throwing away.
Nearer to Pixiebean's home, the Waterford-Limerick Junction line has good dog-walking places near each station. Can they afford to throw away that kind of business?
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