Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and the legislation. Irish Rail has an excellent safety record. I will focus on an incident that occurred on 21 August 2009 on the Balbriggan to Pearse Station service. As the train, carrying 60 passengers, was crossing the Malahide Estuary, 20 m of the track started to collapse. Were it not for the professionalism and ability of the driver, not only would those 60 lives have been lost, the lives of those travelling on the trains coming in the opposite direction at a key peak commuter time would have been lost. Those trains were packed to the gills with commuters from Drogheda in particular, but also many other stations. The driver saved all of their lives. A shocking accident was avoided, but this was a hugely serious event. Any money that can be spent on improving our rail safety merits that investment. Any improvement or further oversight of rail safety in our country is warranted.

Notwithstanding the comments from across the House by Sinn Féin, the programme for Government provides for very significant capital investment in our railways. A sum of €2.6 billion is to be spent under the national development plan. Under that plan, the DART service will be extended to my constituency, and thousands of new commuters will be carried on the northern line. We want the extension now but hopefully it will come sooner rather than later. This will allow people to live away from the city of Dublin and at the same time have access to rapid transport to their places of work. That new carriages have been ordered points to a very significant development in this regard.

The programme for Government also provides for improvements to the Dublin-Belfast rail line and improved rail links to Cork. These works are extremely welcome and necessary. I take this opportunity to highlight the significant concern in County Louth in regard to the discrimination of commuters from Drogheda, Dundalk and Laytown by Irish Rail in regard to the what are known as promotional tickets. Commuters in these areas pay double the fare for double the distance in that the cost of travelling to Dublin from Balbriggan is half the cost of travelling to Dublin from Drogheda. Irish Rail operates promotional fares which discriminate against towns outside of the greater Dublin area. This matter needs to urgently addressed.

I have one question for the Minister of State. The most recent rail accident in the United Kingdom occurred due to flooding on a line which was unexpected. Sadly, but luckily, the number of people killed was low. Is Irish Rail or its safety inspection unit looking at the impact of climate change on our railways, in particular in areas which may flood suddenly? I ask that the Department reply to me separately on this question, if that is appropriate, or, if necessary, I can submit a parliamentary question on it. Things are changing in our society. In the last year, 100 million people travelled via Irish Rail or the Luas, which is a huge number of passengers. The vast majority of these journeys were safe. We need to keep up the good work and the investment in rail. We need to address the climate change issue to ensure commuters can get to work safely. Rail is the way to go.

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