Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I support this motion. CIE and the NRA are not accountable or transparent. CIE and Irish Rail have done a lot of work on the Sligo line, which now has eight services per day, and over the years a lot of money has been poured into the line which has made a big difference to public transport. However, there has not been a joined-up approach in the provision of public buses, rail services and school transport in rural areas. CIE has failed to provide a national transport system. If one is served by a mainline rail service, one can take a train. If one is travelling by rail from Boyle, Carrick-On-Shannon or Castlerea in Roscommon to Dublin, it can cost €70 or €80 for two adults and two children, but if one gets on in Longford, a town in Leinster, it only costs €20. When I asked the Minister about this, he said it was something for which he was not responsible. We are elected by the people and should be responsible for getting answers to these types of questions.

Bodies such as the NRA, Irish Rail and the HSE have been set up, but it is embarrassing when one writes to the NRA and does not receive a letter or a reply comes back which is nonsense. Many elderly people have a free travel pass, some of whom have not used it for 20 years. The country is divided - if one lives in a rural area one has something which is of no use because one will have to get a lift to a train or bus station to travel to Dublin. One might as well get a taxi to Dublin. While Irish Rail and Bus Éireann have done a lot of good, they have failed us in that regard. The rural transport initiative is up and running and perhaps we should now examine how transport works at a local level because committees are now in place. I understand the rural transport initiative receives €11 million in funding each year and provides a wonderful service with very little finance. It also has a social aspect. It is an area to which we are not paying enough attention.

There are motorways to Belfast, Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway, but there is nothing to the north west. The N4 stops at Mullingar and another road is in place, but it is not good enough. The people of the north west demand a good transport system. Who decided which areas to build motorways to? If one looks at any map, one will see a gaping area in the north of Galway and that the area west of the Belfast line is left without a motorway. It is not good enough but when one questions the Minister on it, he says it is not his decision but rather that of the NRA. It is wrong and puts the two fingers up to the people of the west, the north west and those who live north of Galway.

We have the N61 and bypasses but when one asks for the issue of roads to be examined, one is told there is no provision to address national secondary roads, despite the fact that they are the worst roads in the country and a significant number of accidents take place on them. One can spend €500,000 on putting overlay on a road, but national secondary roads need serious investment. Until the Government, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Noel Dempsey and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, are openly responsible for the provision of services such as road, rail and public transport in the country, we will hear the same nonsense we have heard for many years. I do not know why we are afraid of transparency because it is a must.

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