Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have several questions for Iarnród Eireann. The focus of the committee is regional and rural. It seems that in many respects there has been a retreat by many service providers and, potentially, by Iarnród Éireann, from regional and rural areas. It has been mentioned that the services from Limerick to Ballybrophy, Limerick Junction to Waterford and Limerick to Galway and the Ennis and Athenry routes are under threat. If we look at the map, we see that swathes of the country from Sligo to Dublin and Belfast are simply not serviced by rail. Navan is the biggest town in the country without a rail line. A total of 200,000 Meath people commute longer, further and more often than those from other counties. They are more likely to work outside the county than there counterparts in other counties. We have no plans for a rail link from Pace to Navan, which is only 20 miles, until 2045. On one level, Ministers refer to policies to disrupt the trend towards the over-concentration of population and economic activity in Dublin and to ensure that it happens elsewhere. To disrupt this means services must be provided which are not based purely on demand. In other words, we provide services now to create demand in future. For me, across the entire public transport system, this level of disruption is invisible. How do we fix that? The headline in the presentation is very honest and decent and refers to underfunding of €103 million per annum. This is what we in Leinster House need to fix. How do we fix the lack of disruption with regard to regional development?