Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I seldom raise a matter on the Adjournment. I do so only if I feel a matter is of considerable importance. While I very much welcome the presence of the Minister of State, Deputy Áine Brady, as an officeholder of this House I feel we must do better than have a single Minister of State with prepared responses to five Adjournment debate matters. We must reform the way we do business to ensure matters brought to the attention of this House are properly dealt with.

I regard the issue as very important. I refer to the future of rail services in the south east, specifically the future of the Waterford to Rosslare railway line. I refer to general Government policy on public transport. For a long time, we have listened to commitments to having a green tinge to public policy, with investment in public transport to get people off the roads and, in particular, on to the environmentally friendly rail network. However, there is no clear manifestation of that in policy terms. I was Minister with responsibility for the environment in the run-up to the Kyoto Agreement and I chaired the prep conference for Kyoto as president of the Council of Ministers. We have demanding climate change abatement commitments and these will become even stronger. We must have an overt, proactive development strategy for the rail network. I have been formally advised by Mr. Emmett Cotter, district manager of Irish Rail for Waterford, that Irish Rail is considering suspending services on the Waterford to Rosslare line within weeks. Clearly, the service as constructed is not viable but it is not viable because it has never been made viable. It has never been properly marketed and there was no effort to see if there was tourism potential or if further local business could be attracted.

Since the demise of the sugar beet industry - the mainstay of the line - there has been a determination by Irish Rail to allow this line to close. We need marketing and promotion in order to preserve and develop this important rail link in the south east. It is fanciful that we are talking about the Atlantic corridor or a motorway being built along the entire west coast and southern coast to link the south east to the north west when at the same time we want to dismantle the rail links that currently provide the interaction. Irish Rail has been contacted by local interests, including the Waterford & Suir Valley Heritage Railway group, to make a proposal in respect of the future of the line. I hope to hear from the Minister of State, even if my request was of a general nature and she is lacking specifics, that she will bring back to the Minister for Transport and the Cabinet the determination of the people of my county of Wexford, of Waterford and of the south east generally to preserve and develop the infrastructure that has been there for decades. It is unacceptable there is almost a deliberate policy to undermine them.

I can provide the Minister with some of the logistical issues associated with the provision of this service that make no business sense. There seems to be no business case or plan to develop and enhance rail in Ireland. Instead, there is a view from Irish Rail that is predicated on seeking to cut services wherever possible. The idea that one might think outside the box to develop the line with community interests, how students could be brought to Waterford Institute of Technology, how tourists could be brought on a heritage trail and how local commuters could be facilitated on a cheap basis in terms of timing, logistics and marketing seems not to have occurred to Irish Rail. I ask the Minister of State to explain to the House the commitment this Government has to rail services in this country generally, specifically to those in the south east and more specifically to those between Watford and Rosslare.

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