Childrens fares from ticket machines ?

[zag]

Can anyone confirm whether you can buy a childrens fare from the ticket machines in DART stations ?

I went to buy an adult and child ticket today and after selecting an adult single I selected 'more tickets' or whatever the option is called. There didn't seem to be a childrens ticket option, and I couldn't find the 'back out' option, so I cancelled it and started again and rekeyed everything to get my adult single.

Then I went through the process again and tried to select a child single by itself, but again the option wasn't there. I can't remember the details, but it definitely indicated a child single in some description somewhere.

So, I gave up and had to queue for the ticket office anyway to get the child single. What a waste of time.

After all that the ticket barriers were off at Connolly and there was no sign of any ticket checking staff *at all* in the station, so I needn't have queued at all . . .

This was well before the parade had finished - I wouldn't like to have seen the scenes later in the day as hordes of people (with kids in tow) descended on the station and came across the same situation.

So, is it possible to buy a childrens ticket from those infernal machines or not ?

z

p.s. why won't they take credit cards for less than €5 transactions ? Makes them pretty useless for daily commuter tickets. I know there is a % charge for credit card transactions, but that time I was late for work, had no cash, but did have a credit card I sure wouldn't have minded paying an extra 50c just to get my ticket. As it happens, the machine didn't even tell me there was a minimum, just kept rejecting my card without an explanation. It was the guy behind the counter who told me when I eventually asked him after he sat there watching me trying it over and over and over again.