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

I ask about CLÁR. The Department has carried out a limited number of actions under CLÁR, which I welcome. It is time now, however, to start to widen its scope. It has fantastic potential. In that regard, I mention two ideas which I know are feasible. The first is a good scheme because it leverages money. I refer to the group water scheme top-up grant. The number of houses which are not on a good and properly regulated group water scheme or on a mains scheme is small. However, these houses do exist in clusters which are dependent on wells of variable quality. There was huge demand for the top-up scheme before and we were getting close to dealing with this. A lot of schemes were nearly ready to go. This is a slow burner because, no more than anything else, it will not break the bank this year. If the Minister approved the money this year, it would not be spent until next year. Will the Minister consider re-instituting that scheme this year to achieve a target of giving everybody in the country, within reason, access to running water at a reasonable cost from either a group scheme or a mains supply? There are not many houses which are five miles away from any other house but I would accept that such houses might not be included. The top-up scheme proved very effective at delivering that in the past.

The Minister, the Minister of State and the Chairman will all agree about the following. We have fought for many years to do something on the western rail corridor. Part of the corridor between Athenry to Claremorris is in the CLÁR area. In the context of leveraging funds, I note that nothing galvanises State agencies to take action like throwing a few bob on the table to match their funding. I understand the cost of doing the route from Athenry to Claremorris is approximately €70 million or €80 million, which is small beer in the context of the billions spent on roads, the Luas and the metro. Will the Minister consider throwing a few bob on the table under CLÁR and rural development to put it up to those agencies? Fáilte Ireland might meet the Minister about "The Quiet Man" station. We could put historic trains on there to bring tourists down to re-enact John Wayne's role.

This would provide a commuter line to Galway also. The Minister represents Mayo while the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, and I represent Galway. Can the Minister imagine if the train were not to stop at Manulla but continued on to Claremorris, Athenry and Galway to pick up people coming from Westport and Castlebar who wanted to go to Galway? They could be picked up in either Manulla or Claremorris. It would mean a proper integrated service in the west, in particular a commuter service into Galway which is going to have 40,000 to 50,000 extra people living there in the next 20 years. I have often pointed out that the Harcourt Street line closed in 1959 and was sold. Everybody said there was no population in Dundrum or Cherrywood and it would never be viable. Within ten years or 20 years at the very outside, which was 1979, there was massive regret that it had been sold. By 1989, the regret was so great, they had to go back and buy everything again at enormous cost to put back the railway line.

The Minister can make this happen. He has the will, the way and the money. It would be a strategic project for which he would be forever remembered. If we had a proper commuter service coming into Galway, which is to say arriving and leaving at the right times, I am convinced we would get very good patronage on the line. Athenry to Galway has already proved that. There would also be freight trains from Ballina to Foynes, Cork and Waterford without having to travel along all the railway lines on the east coast. Those are two ideas for the Minister today and I would like to hear a response. It is time the Minister with responsibility for rural development showed us something. He is a year in the senior job. I accept that he is in a much better position on issues like this now. Will he at least consider what I say? I have discussed matters with Bord Fáilte previously and have no doubt that if the Minister did a bit, it would do a bit too. It would then be very hard for the big boys in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and Iarnród Éireann to say no.