Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I congratulate the Acting Chairman, Deputy Murnane O'Connor. I know the people of Carlow will be very proud of her. I wish her well.

I wish to speak about two matters. The Minister of State might have heard of the first, the Kilnageer railway crossing in Breaffy, Castlebar. This feeds in to what my colleague Deputy O'Rourke has been saying about the RAIU. The railway crossing is unmanned and it needs automated gates. It is extremely dangerous. For years, the community has been asking for a solution. The solution is quite simple in that the crossing just needs automatic gates. We must be careful not to make unmanned crossings inaccessible to those with disabilities and the elderly, who have to get out of their cars when trying to get from one side to the other. There have been many accidents and near fatalities at the crossing. We need to do the simple jobs and tackle the health and safety issues that need to be addressed on the railway.

I welcome the declarations and intentions of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, regarding the western rail corridor. We very much hope in the west that the work on this corridor will proceed at speed.

The need for this Bill arises from the changes to the EU law related to the EU fourth railway package, passed by the EU in 2016. I caution against the move to harmonise arrangements across Europe. I refer to the privatisation of railways in Britain and other countries. We have seen the aggressive move to privatise railways in France. That is not the way we need to go in this country; we need rail to be a public good. The western rail corridor would never be developed if it were privatised. I caution against privatisation but, as my colleague said, we support this Bill.

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