Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)

It would be great to see Foynes in particular. I am biased because I live on that side of County Limerick. On the day I turned 17, I bought a car because I did not have a choice. There is no public transport that is sufficient to do what I need it to do. I said only last week that the first time I used a train was when I was 15 and had to come up to Dublin to get a passport. The second time was in February when I started here. That is because it does not suit everybody. When you live outside the cities, Irish Rail and Bus Éireann do not seem offer services at times that suit people's needs.

When there was something on in Sligo, I wondered whether I would get the train. I looked and it would take me seven hours to get to Sligo, outside the near hour it takes to get from my house into the city to get the train. I would then have to get on the train at Colbert Station, go as far as Heuston Station, then have to make my way from Heuston Station to Connolly Station and then on to Sligo. It is absolute madness that we do not seem to have direct trains from Cork to Limerick and Limerick to Galway, and a split for Galway-Dublin. We should have rail lines going up all sides so that people are not put off using rail and are forced into their cars. I would love to see something like that come on stream. Have we any sort of a timeline for that?