Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)

Tá áthas orm go bhfuil seans agam labhairt sa díospóireacht thábhachtach seo. I compliment Deputies Shortall, Mitchell and Eamon Ryan on bringing this very important motion before the Dáil on behalf of their respective parties. Essentially the issue centres on the largest problem facing mankind currently, global warming, climate change and the consequences.

One of the statistics which made me sit up and take notice was that there has been a declining market share of rail freight from 5% in the 1980s to less than 1% today. Ireland had a fine rail system until the 1950s, but we are essentially now down to the Dublin commuter lines, the rail links between Dublin and the main urban centres and some other links beyond those.

The Government has set its face against the whole area of fiscal incentives. If we approach the issue of global warming and its consequences purely in the context of market forces, a situation which is deteriorating will only get a good deal worse. As both my colleagues, Deputies Shortall and Michael Higgins, have pointed out, possibly up to eight of our EU partners provide some kind of financial or other assistance to rail freight operations.

The benefits accruing from switching a significant amount of freight from road to rail are self-evident. They are so rooted in common sense that we are inclined to pass them by without their really registering. The wear and tear on our roads comes to mind immediately, and there would be safer roads, less congestion and gridlock.

Other issues arise from the transfer of freight to our railways. For example, approximately 19% of accidents involve a heavy goods vehicle. On the other side of the House the financial and economic aspects of this issue, as against the social, environmental and other virtuous aspects, seem to be of major importance. I understand the economic cost of each fatality is of the order of approximately €1 million. This is clearly very insignificant at the end of the day when one considers lives that are lost.

From the environmental perspective and taking into account greenhouse gases, the transfer of freight to our rail system is imperative. The Government is looking for people to make suggestions, but good government is about going out and developing vision, putting measures in place which achieve the objective. To leave our solution to the freight issue only to market forces is a route that will lead to disaster.

A great deal of work needs to be done by all sides regarding how we could achieve the transfer and the measures required to do so. If we do not act, the clogging of our roads and the damage done to them, along with the cost of wear, tear and maintenance, will have to be dealt with.

I support this motion, one of the most important to come before this Dáil, the days of which are drawing to a close.

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