Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Garvey. I may not get back in at the rate we are going because of voting, so I want to make again the point I made at the start by naming the councillors from right across the country who have raised issues. I am going to raise them with the witnesses so they can come back to me on them on an individual basis. I include an issue on which it would be great if Mr. Kenny answered in a second. Even councillors from Donegal contacted me, namely councillors Patrick McGowan and Michael Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuig. They do not have any train services but would like them. I have also been contacted by the following councillors: from Mayo, Mark Duffy and Brendan Mulroy; from Leitrim, Felim Gurn; from Louth, John Sheridan and Sean Kelly; from Meath, Sean Drew, Stephen McKee, Paul McCabe and Aisling Dempsey; from Westmeath, Frankie Keena; from Longford, Uruemu Adejinmi; from Fingal County Council, Howard Mahony and Adrian Henchy; from Dublin City Council; Christy Burke and Mannix Flynn; from South Dublin County Council, Mick Duff; from Kildare, Seamie Moore; from Galway, indicating how popular Galway is, John Connolly, Joe Sheridan, Shelly Herterich Quinn, Martina Kinnane, Dr. Evelyn Francis Parsons and Donagh Killilea; from Clare, Rita McInerney and Tony O'Brien; from Tipperary, Ryan O'Meara and Siobhán Ambrose; from Kerry John O'Donoghue, Michael Cahill and Jackie Healy-Rae; from Waterford, Joe Conway; from Wexford, Michael Whelan; and from Wicklow, Gerry Walsh and Pat Fitzgerald. Therefore, there is an enormous amount of interest in Iarnród Éireann's services. By and large, the issues are not complaints as such but queries about when services, including earlier, later and more frequent ones, will be provided. Occasionally, they are about stairs, a bridge or a lift that is not working. I say this as much to bring it to the witnesses' attention as anything else. However, there is a genuine appetite and the vast bulk of the correspondence is positive.

Deputy Leddin mentioned the strategic profile. Many probably think rail services in Ireland are run only by Irish Rail, that it can do what it likes and that it keeps all the money and makes profit, but this is not the case. Irish Rail is now the operator. Everything it does is now controlled by the rail safety people, on one side, but also by the NTA through the fare box and the provision of the operational budget and by the Department of Transport through the capital programme. Sometimes people think Irish Rail did not do this or that but in many cases it was not that Irish Rail did not want to; it is just that it has not yet the ability. If it had its own budget, it would probably open a rail link to the airport in the morning. It would probably be one of the most profitable lines if it were put in. It is all about the Government. It is important for people to get a handle on it. A point well made by Deputy Leddin was that Irish Rail is not totally the master of its own destiny. It has to keep providing the service, looking for money and making a case for why it needs more money for its day-to-day activity, whether this entails security on trains or an extra service in the morning. It is about making a case regarding demand for services. A long time ago, people said the western rail corridor would never work, but when the service was provided, it worked all of a sudden. In my area, people could have said there was no point in reopening the old Harcourt Street line, as it was – a heavy rail line. The minute it was opened, it was incredibly popular, although I will not say it was full on the first day. People who never thought of using these kinds of services were using them and would not go back to any other mode of transport. It is very much a positive news story.

I suggest that the committee bring the witnesses back again quite soon because there is clearly an appetite for all they are doing. I do not wish to distract from what Irish Rail does but it is important that the public realise all that is happening. The public make demands of us and we in turn make demands of Irish Rail, which can then go to the NTA and the Government to ask for more funding for capital projects and day-to-day business. I thank all the witnesses for everything they have done.