James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share my time with Deputies Eamon Scanlon and Kevin O'Keeffe. I thank Solidarity-People Before Profit for allowing us time from its slot.

I wish to talk about transport in so far as it pertains to my constituency, Kildare North, and the wider commuter belt. The motion is on local and regional roads. There are many such roads that need attention in Kildare but they would not need so much today if the commuter system were working and if the public transport corridors and public transport system in which we were supposed to be investing over many years were able to cope with the demand.

Kildare North spans the M4 and N7 motorways, both of which are operating at maximum capacity.

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Train carriages are full coming through stations and the car parks at those stations are also full. Irish Rail figures recently confirmed to me that the Sallins station car park is at 165% occupancy on a daily basis. This means that two thirds more cars are squeezing into the car park than are permitted under health and safety regulations. When I asked the Minister a parliamentary question about investment in the rail network and carriages, he confirmed that no rolling stock has been purchased by him in the three years since he took office. He has spent absolutely nothing on rolling stock. When I asked about the industrial disputes relating to Bus Éireann and services through Kildare, Meath and elsewhere, which also affect rail services, the Minister told me they were operational issues. When I asked him about issues such as the ten-minute DART service, which is a programme to fast-track the delivery of DART and Arrow services across the commuter belt and the Phoenix Park tunnel, is a pivotal piece of the greater Dublin area infrastructure, he again told me they were operational issues of which he could not possibly be expected to have any awareness. I find it staggering that a Minister for transport would not know about the jewels in the crown of transport infrastructure in the greater Dublin area.

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