Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank the witnesses for their presentation. I was interested to hear about bus shelters. There are many small towns in rural parts of Ireland in which there is not even a sign for the bus stop, never mind a bus shelter. When will that be addressed? How much of a roll-out of bus shelters will there be? I welcome the extra carriages which I believe are being put on Iarnród Éireann's Sligo route. That is welcome. We have overcrowding on the Westport route. It does not seem to be being addressed at certain times. There has there been talk over recent months that the Dublin to Belfast route will be going down the road towards going electric. Why is there no talk at all about electrifying the route out as far as Maynooth and then reverting to diesel out to the west? It does not seem that investment will be put into that.

On rural transport, there are some very good examples, for example, in Ballinamore. There is a great woman, Camilla Kelly, who works on the Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon areas. Some great projects have been rolled out which suit both people who are working and people who want to go shopping. Why is there such a discrepancy in different parts of the country? There can be a good system which brings people to work on a return train journey in some counties, but in other counties the system only works for the bingo run. I mean no disrespect by that. It needs to be done, but the system only works for the bingo run and the shopping on Friday. Other than that there is nothing. The system does not cater for workers or anything. Why is that the situation in some counties? To be honest about it, there are many places where one would not see a bus within a five or six mile radius from one end of the year to the other. What can be done to address that?

On rail, I listened with interest to what was said when the western rail corridor was brought up. Ms Graham has seen the rail review. The document states that three different routes are for the chop. We need to nail this down. I am in full support of rail, but there is no good in having formulas of words and in bringing out documents which say that we will have a review and this, that and the other. At the end of the day, the time has come for straight answers on the western rail corridor and on the line in Tipperary. We need a straight answer as to whether investment will be given or not. Wording in documents is not what we want. We want either to get pounds, shillings and pence to deliver something or to move on. Where is Ms Graham on this? Does she agree with what I am saying? Is she saying that this committee needs to bring in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport to nail this down once and for all? This sort of nod and wink approach has been going on almost since I was a young fella, and that is a while ago. Either rail projects are being done or they are not. We need to nail it down one way or the other.

Ms Graham touched on Dublin Bus. The information I have is that, while rural people are being told that they will not be able to buy a diesel car in the next ten, 15 or 20 years even if they are travelling long distances, Dublin Bus is currently buying diesel buses and was buying diesel buses last year. If I was trying to show the way in something, I would be damn sure that public transport should be the first to lead the way. Why is this continuing? Perhaps it is down to money. That is fully understandable. To put it simply, there would be nine buses where there were ten if we were to change over to the gas system. Is this the reason? Is it down to money? Who is going to make the decisions on the way forward in respect of buses? I note that Ms Graham said 2019 or 2020. If we are bringing out documents about climate change and all this craic, which I see plenty of within the Dáil, why is the State not leading the way rather than putting the onus onto the person who may have no bus, who may have to travel a distance to work in a rural part of Ireland, and who may not have the money to be changing over all this stuff? Why is the State not showing the way first? At least we could then point to what we have done. That is not happening. Will Ms Graham give me her opinion on that?

On the Luas or tram-type systems, I know that Dublin Airport is being touted. State land could be had for something like €200 million, rather than €4 billion, which would allow the DART to shoot out to Malahide and then across, bringing in the Swords area and out towards the airport. Why was that not looked at? It would be simpler and quicker. In Galway there does not seem to be a system.

I am sure the NTA is aware of the transport problems in Parkmore. We do not seem to have a bus or a park-and-ride system set up that would help alleviate the problem. Galway is losing jobs because of the transport situation. When do the witnesses envisage a Luas-type system in that city, or are we living in fairyland world whereby we will say it will happen in 2030 or 2040 and we will not be here when it will happen?