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

We are all under time pressure because some of us are on two committees that are meeting one after the other.

I welcome the witnesses. Ms Graham said the remit of the authority is to regulate – we understand that – and develop. What precise role does the authority have in development outside the greater Dublin area?

Has the NTA sought to amend the legislation to give it the same powers and responsibilities outside the greater Dublin area, GDA, as it has within it to make it a truly national transport authority?

It was explained that Iarnród Éireann provides rail services under a contract with the National Transport Authority and that any changes to rail services require the approval of the authority. Who initiates proposed changes in rail services? Who is the person who says we recognise that we have a totally inadequate commuter rail service into Galway, for example, or into Cork or Limerick, and we need a much more comprehensive, integrated rail service that serves the real needs of people who want to travel to work by train? Is it the NTA or Iarnród Éireann that initiates the process? Is the NTA the disposer or the proposer of rail policy in terms of the services? We need to get a handle on this issue. It is similar with bus services. For example, in many parts of the country where urban areas service rural areas, starting in the third level cities, as I call them, and towns and going out to the rural areas, there are no buses after 6 p.m. Ultimately, whose responsibility is it to propose that we move into the 21st century and change all of that? Is it the responsibility of the bus companies or the NTA? In other words, does the NTA just dispose of proposals or does it make them and say this is the service that a national transport body should provide and this is what we want?

My next question relates to fares. It is a bugbear of mine. I think I raised it with the NTA previously. Fares per kilometre are strangely way more expensive in the non-urban areas. In Galway, for example, the designated urban area goes out to Barna, or in the Dublin area it has been extended to Sallins, but beyond that one is in the sticks and one's fare doubles for going one mile. Whose responsibility is it to drive change in that regard? I refer to equity, fairness and equality, all the terms that are the buzzwords of modern society. Who drives change - the NTA or the bus companies? As with the fare issue, is the NTA the proposer or the disposer?

My understanding is that a submission was made by the NTA to the greenways policy, proposing to use the railway line from Athenry northwards as a greenway, even though the programme for Government says that the Government will investigate reopening that railway line. Will the witnesses explain the NTA's role in that and in making proposals for the western rail corridor? Does the NTA have a view on the need to develop commuter rail into the major cities from the surrounding areas of Galway, Waterford, Limerick and Cork? We do not have commuter rail in any of those cities other than Cork. How does it sit to propose the demise of a railway corridor?

In 1959 the Harcourt Street railway line was closed in Dublin. It is now the green Luas line which goes out to Sandyford. The line used to go out to Bray. It was all sold up fairly fast. By 1989, 30 years later, everybody realised that was a fundamental mistake and that what seemed impossible in 1959 - that there would be massive populations around Dundrum – actually happened. It is proposed that there will be 1 million extra in population and they will not live where the national plan wants them to live. They will live where they want to live. The western rail corridor and maintaining its availability for a railway line is key to the future. The Chairman has a particular interest in the southern end of that railway line and getting decent services on it. I commend you on that because it has enormous potential that we are not exploiting. Limerick has endless railway lines around it that could be used for commuter transport for up to 30 miles around the city. We need to get a clear NTA position on the railway lines.