Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. The year 2011 was mentioned. I am not from the area in question, but I am well aware of the problems experienced by people who have travelled on that line in recent years. I am looking across at the witnesses, where one side of the State is telling the other side what it cannot do. Were they in the private sector, they would not have jobs. If one cannot deliver, one will not have a job. Senator Coffey pointed out how one crowd will write to the other telling it that doing something is not "cost effective", which I have just heard from the OPW. The west does not deserve a train line because it is not cost effective. The OPW is considering how many houses there are in an area. I know how it analyses cost effectiveness. The number has increased slightly in some areas. However, we are talking about the bigger picture. This is about the tourism on which Clare, Galway and Limerick are relying. This is about the west. Do we just want to shut the train track down? It looks like that will happen.

We have been looking at the same problem for seven, eight or ten years. No one else would still be looking at a problem after so long. Nothing is being done because, given what has been said, no money will be forthcoming from the OPW. Five different solutions have been examined.

Mr. Fitzgerald referred to the NPWS helping. Given the loughs and turloughs in the area, any farmer, council or State body undertaking work must adhere to 34 types of permit. This even affects private property, which is a burden the State has placed on owners because of EU regulations. The 5 km up the road and the environment were mentioned, but we should be discussing the people in the area and those who travel on the train line. They come first in my book regardless of the EU or statutory obligations. The term "statutory obligations" is used time and again. The first thing we are elected to do is represent the people of an area and solve problems.

It will cost €10 million to raise the track, but Iarnród Éireann does not have that money and there is no point in saying it does. Debt has been taken on in respect of Lough Funshinagh and elsewhere in County Roscommon, but we want solutions. Four or five years ago, two of us went to a field with diggers and dug through the night. Fair play to the council in Galway. We opened a drain all the way down to a river. From that day on, 10 km of flooding was solved. We did that work voluntarily because it would not have been done quickly enough otherwise. It was piped and done. Why can the NPWS not install a pipe that would take the overflow? It could then worry about the environment while ensuring that enough water was held.

Due to the hen harrier, many parts of the country are drowned because we cannot clean drains and alleviate flooding. Mr. Fitzgerald referred to the NPWS being helpful, but he should go to Connemara in County Galway and see the problems being caused on its roads. The NPWS objected to them being widened. When the council opened a drain on a road that was flooded, the NPWS rang up to tell the council to close it again because it was a suck-all SAC. Am I correct in saying that there is not an individual statutory instrument in respect of every SAC? I followed the situation in question tightly. It was a site of community importance. My understanding is that at least half of our SACs are not actually SACs.

I wish Mr. Tiernan from Clare well in his retirement. He said that he and the council would help in any way and that Iarnród Éireann was the main stakeholder. Of course it is - it has the train line. However, does that benefit Clare, Limerick, Galway and elsewhere in the west? Do we want to shut the line and, as per usual, say it was causing problems and that the people can either go to Dublin or jump on a plane at Shannon and leave the country? From what I have read and heard, we have been dealing with a bit of a flood for eight years. When there was flooding in Athleague, we voluntarily used our own diggers to solve problems. There were no papers, meeting after meeting, environmental impact assessments, appropriate assessment screening reports and so on, as we would have been told by the NPWS to go through the imperative reasons of overriding public interest, IROP process, which would have taken four more years and seen the can being kicked down the road.

This is about solutions and someone making a decision quickly. There are five options. If the recommended one cannot be afforded, then it is gone. It is as simple as that. Will the Government provide €10 million to raise this track? Would it be good value for money? Culverts in various areas were mentioned. Could a pipe be placed along the line? Would that help a larger catchment area? The pipe could be laid at a height that would not damage the environment because a trapdoor can be placed on any pipe to let out as much water as desired.

However, no one will make a decision. Everyone will say that we cannot do that but there is no solution as to what we can do. At the end of the day, we will keep reading in the newspapers or hearing on the "Nine O'Clock News" that the line is blocked. We are trying to get balanced regional development, to get people to live and work in Clare and the west of Ireland and to get businesses to set up there so that people can go to work. Government after Government and the great EU, that devised all these regulations, talk about public transport. From what I have listened to today, the flora and fauna, birds or whatever else is more important than a person. If that is the way things have gone, by God our country has gone wrong. This happening countrywide.

Business people around the country are afraid to go near certain areas because of the amount of designation. They are closed off. A circular - it is not even a law - has been sent to every council from the NPWS to set a 15 km buffer zone around an SAC. I can be contradicted on this if I am wrong but I have been met officials from Galway County Council, Roscommon County Council and so on. The 15 km buffer zone is in case the integrity of a site might be damaged. If we want to go by the book then every part of the west of Ireland will be caught in that.

I address my next comment to Mr. Meade who talked about greenways. I am fully in favour of greenways and rail services but he mentioned a greenway or a rail line not being upgraded or opened in the "medium" term. What does he mean by "medium" term? I would like a straight answer because I spoke to him earlier on and I found him a straight talking person. I do not want anyone saying it is the NTA's problem. It is and it will give the money. Having read the rail review, etc., does Mr. Meade believe the Galway-Athenry-Tuam section will open the medium term? There is wording in Government documents, and everyone is saying everything at the moment and dancing around in circles but no one is cutting to the chase to say one way or the other. It is a good to know if a person is going to be told today or tomorrow. We need to be told directly if this will be opened in the medium term or will it go beyond that?