Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I know. These are the sad things I do on my holidays. It came out in August 2016. I went through it and I buy into its analysis. My attitude is that it needs to be done in total as soon as possible. Therefore, I buy into the public transport element of it but I also buy into the fact that this cannot be done unless one builds the road around the city. However, building a road around the city and not carrying out the public transport work will not work either. We should just get on with fully implementing this. I share the concern that, when we have done all that, if we do get 40,000 more people in the city and another 40,000 people within 40 miles of the city, we may still be at a zero-sum game, but we will ask the NTA about that another day.

This study has one big weakness in that it basically concerns Barna and Moycullen to Claregalway and Oranmore. My understanding - perhaps Tony Neary could confirm this - is that approximately 46% of the employees in Parkmore Estate alone come from the county area, mainly from the east, and an awful lot of those are in turn from beyond Claregalway and Oranmore. I accept that one is fine if one is in a car on the motorway route; one is sorted once one gets clear of the town. However, there are two issues that do not seem to be addressed in the study. One is how one gets from Galway to Carrowroe, as mentioned by an Seanadóir Ó Céidigh. That can take an hour and a half either way in the morning and the evening, which is totally unacceptable for the distance involved. Regarding the part nearest Galway, one is fine when one gets to Baile na hAbhann outwards; it is the near end that is the problem. The other issue is who is responsible for this wider planning. This plan just gets us to Barna, to Oranmore. Who is responsible for the wider planning of transport in the region? Galway is meant to be a regional grower and many of Medtronic's employees will insist on living where they are from no matter what plans we bring in. We should be practical about that. That is the way it will be.

Finally, who would be responsible for the analysis and the development of an existing resource, that is, commuter rail into Galway? I see this as coming from the north, the east and the south and drawing up a plan as to what it would take to use the existing assets that are there and sweat them to their absolute maximum ability. We have seen big growth in traffic from Athenry by accident since the train to Limerick started because there is some frequency to it. However, my question is who has the responsibility of analysing what could be achieved at a modest investment if the current assets, that is, three railway lines going in three different directions, were sweated, passing bays and so on, in order to achieve frequency of trains and a focus on commuters. It is crazy that we do not have any commuter service into Galway. All over Northern Ireland, from Bangor to Derry and everywhere else, services are very much focused on the needs of the commuter. Which authority, county council, city council or other body - the NTA, TII - is responsible for making a policy decision to examine this and come up with a solution?