Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is the Minister for everything tonight.

In July 2019, Irish Rail downgraded Bagenalstown train station to an automatic station. Since then, there has been no stationmaster on site and the maintenance of the station has been subcontracted out. In July 2017, this same station was deemed so beautiful that An Post captured it in a commemorative stamp. It was great to see the building on a commemorative stamp. The beautiful stone station, which was designed by the architect Mr. Sancton Wood who also designed Heuston Station, was the stationmaster's home for many years. It continues to be an important part of the fabric of Bagenalstown. To say that it is not busy enough to keep it manned is a slap in the face for this rural town and the people in it, who matter just as much as people in larger towns and cities.

Just last year, Bagenalstown station was added to the Waterford to Dublin early-morning commuter route because, as the Minister of State knows, Bagenalstown is an important town. The move to self-service for this station was a retrograde step. While an Irish Rail staff member can disembark at all stations to help with machine tickets and accessibility issues, there is nobody at the station before a train comes to help those who need assistance. What is worse, the toilets are rarely opened. Steps like these show that we are slowly but surely eroding the rural way of life. Around 140 commuters use the Bagenalstown station and now that restrictions have been lifted and working from home is being phased out, more and more commuters will be using this service.

Transport poverty and inaccessibility are social and environmental issues. More than one in four people living with a disability do not use public transport because of accessibility issues. Although there is the promise of a customer service operative on board to help commuters with mobility and other issues, this is often not the case and the driver has to get out to assist passengers which causes delays. This kind of reduced service will contribute to further reductions in the use of public transport at a time when we need to find more ways to cut our carbon footprint.

To have a train station without assistance or toilets in 2022 is scandalous. What can the Department do to sort this out? I welcome the fact that there will be a public consultation on the need for extra carriages from Waterford to Carlow and Bagenalstown to Dublin. It is my understanding that this will be advertised shortly and people will be encouraged to have their say. One of the biggest issues with the train that comes from Waterford is that by the time it gets to Bagenalstown and Carlow, it is absolutely full and people have to stand. I know that during Covid things changed and fewer people were travelling by train but we will need extra carriages now. I ask that when the public consultation process is being launched that it is heavily advertised so that people are aware of it. We do not want people to say they were not aware of it. We need to cut our carbon footprint, as the Minister of State knows well. I look forward to the response from the Department.

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