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5 minutes can be an eternity if its gonna make you late for work or miss a connecting bus/train.
I agree, I don't know why the ticket machines are so slow. The fact that it speaks to you so loudly aswell is a wreck the head for those standing around waiting. The ticket machines for the tube in london are simple and effective and you can have your ticket within 2 seconds if you're familiar with them.
How does it work with prepaid tickets - do you have to put them into the ticket machine to validate them? If so, wouldn't it be a better idea to have separate machines for validation so as to avoid queues?
That said, these are minor flaws and overall I agree that the Luas is excellent, though the I will be interested to see what impact the Tallaght line has on traffic as it comes into contact with it way more.