Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Meade for his presentation and its detail on all the lines.

I live in south Leitrim, and Dromod, Longford and Carrick-on-Shannon are the main areas from where people from my part of the world are heading toward Dublin. The trains, particularly at weekends, are packed. The congestion on those lines is a significant problem for many, particularly students going back to college etc. I was happy to read that Iarnród Éireann is talking about upgrading that service to an hourly service. Is there a timescale in that respect? Mr. Meade suggested the service would be two-hourly from Westport and every hour from Sligo.

In regard to freight rail, I am conscious that there are directives in preparation in Europe on freight transport, particularly road haulage, and pressure arising from the point of view of CO2 emissions etc. Having spoken to somebody in the road haulage sector, I am aware it is something about which they are quite concerned. The European perspective is that more freight needs to go by rail, which has a lower carbon footprint. Are there any such plans? Looking from the outside, it seems as though the passenger carrying network is already chock-a-block and if there is to be expansion in the area of freight, it will become difficult to meet the requirement.

In respect of the other sectors, all of the west needs to get a grip as to what we are going to do. While everything, I suppose, in every country, orientates towards the capital city, those of us in the west would like to see something happening with the western rail corridor with some sense that there will be connectivity along the western coast. What can we do in respect of that? Are there plans in that regard? Are we seriously considering that? Ultimately, if we step back from it - we spoke earlier in the meeting in private session about economic development - it is the part of the world that has the most potential because it is the least developed. I would be happy to see that Irish Rail was considering making applications for European funding to upgrade tracks to bring us to a stage where we can compete with the rest of the country in that respect. Funding is provided nationally through the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. What plans are there, particularly through the trans-European transport networks, TEN-T, avenue of funding from Europe? There seem to be few plans, certainly with regard to the north west.