Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. I am particularly pleased that he makes specific reference to the double-tracking of the line from Athenry to Oranmore and to the enhancement of those stations. I thank him and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, for making this a priority. I ask that this be developed with the greatest expediency possible. Athenry is a town of just over 5,000 people. The population has doubled over the last 20 years. Oranmore is also a town of 5,000 people whose population has doubled over the last 20 years. In its most recent analysis, the Central Statistics Office tells us that there are 1,850 people commuting to and from Athenry and Oranmore to Galway city every day, almost twice the number of people commuting from the whole of County Mayo. This is the investment and this is the urgency. This double-tracking and increasing the frequency of the trains is exactly what we need to see happening, as Deputy Connolly has already said. Finally, there is a serious inequity between the fares paid by people from the commuter belt of Galway city, and those of Limerick, Waterford and other cities, in comparison to the fares paid by people living in the greater Dublin region. Irish Rail needs to look at that urgently.

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