Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State will be fed up, having seen me a number of times in the past while. That the RAIU should be able to investigate for all rail types is a necessity. That is a given. This is an anomaly Bill and clean-up Bill and it needs to be passed. We could not possibly operate without decent rail safety infrastructure. I am reminded of a book I once read, Black Box Thinkingby Matthew Syed, which refers to new thinking on aviation. The idea was that after a near miss or near accident, there would be a two-week amnesty period in which pilots could report it. The idea was that one could analyse what happened and ensure the mode of operations could be improved to avoid a recurrence. It led to major safety improvements and, obviously, the saving of lives. When I saw this Bill, I was reminded of the book. We need this kind of thinking to be introduced to ensure we have the best safety infrastructure possible.

We completely support this necessary Bill. I agree with comments that have been made by some of my colleagues on the missed opportunities regarding rail in this State. We are living with the consequences. Regarding the difficulties experienced when installing the Luas, it would have been a hell of a lot easier had we been dealing with the tram system that never should have been removed in the first place.

I engaged in questions and answers with the Taoiseach earlier, specifically on the shared-island unit. He spoke about the difficulty experienced by the State over the years regarding many projects it agreed to. He talked about cross-Border projects, such as Narrow Water bridge and the A5, and promises that were made. When the projects were left with individual Departments, they found reasons, probably genuinely good ones, not to proceed with them. They found other things to do. While I might have difficulties with some parts of the terms of reference of the shared island unit, I believe the unit is necessary if we are to complete some of the necessary cross-Border projects. We have all heard tell in the past while of possible high-speed rail, particularly on a cross-Border basis. This needs to happen.

Many commuters in the likes of Dundalk use the Enterprise train, which runs from Dublin to Belfast and back. The problem is that, in many cases, it only runs every two hours. We need to have a greater level of connectivity and ensure more trips so it will be more possible to use the rail network for commuting. The price can also be a dissuader. We need to examine this. We have to give people opportunities. We are talking about the benefits of rail travel in dealing with the climate problems we face so we need to make it easier for people. We need to consider an overall strategy - a cross-Border strategy but also a strategy for this State and beyond - to ensure we will have the best possible rail infrastructure and a system that delivers for passengers. Obviously, rail safety and security are absolutely necessary.

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