Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. Recently, Dr. Eimear Cotter, director of environmental sustainability in the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, said Ireland is locked into a trend of rising carbon emissions. She was referring to the transport and freight sector. The freight line between the Port of Waterford and Ballina recently ceased. Currently we do not have a national freight policy, yet freight is an environmentally sustainable way to transport bulk products. Why did that link cease? At a time the United Kingdom and other European partners are developing the rail freight networks, why are we closing them? Further, if that line is currently closed to freight, is there any plan to open a rail service, for instance, between Rosslare and Waterford, and Ballina? That would be a great link. The line between Rosslare and Waterford has been closed. We are going in the wrong direction because using the railway system is one way of mitigating congestion in areas but we are not doing that. We are closing the services. What is the witnesses' reaction to that?

With regard to low emission vehicles and bus lines, last year I visited Nijmegen in Holland where most of the public buses are zero-emission. What is Bus Éireann doing with regard to procuring diesel vehicles? Is there a policy to move away from diesel to zero emission buses? That is not new age talk. The infrastructure is in place in other countries, and they are using it. What is our policy on that and are we moving in that direction? What are Bus Éireann's plans to phase out older diesel buses and move towards using a more environmentally fleet?

Congestion has been discussed. The sooner we operate an efficient and effective public transport system, the better for the country for many reasons. I refer finally to a bugbear of mine. I live in Tramore, County Waterford, and my daughter attends NUI Galway. Every time she takes the bus from Galway to Limerick to connect to another bus to Waterford, the bus meets congestion in Limerick and she misses the onward bus to Waterford. There is connectivity according to the timetable but that is not the reality. I am hearing about this from other people. In terms of efficiency, my daughter is losing time but she is only one of many. What is Bus Éireann doing to adapt its timetables to offset congestion at peak hours in different cities?