Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

With regard to Dublin Port, there are different views. Dublin Port has argued that it could not run the rail lines which it currently does the quayside but instead shunt containers by truck from the port to the Sheriff Street area. Irish Rail has argued that has huge disadvantages and needs the area for its operations, and that once there are double or several movements things become very expensive. I tend to agree with Irish Rail.

We are going to go with railhead to the quayside in Cork, Waterford, Wexford and Shannon Foynes, why would we exclude the largest port in the State from a similar strategy and create, in effect, a disconnected network? We will have to wait at the what the Arup report said. As the Deputy knows, it comprises independent engineers. Let us see what it delivers.

Over 90% of the roll-on roll-off haulage in Ireland comes through Dublin Port and is driven through the port tunnel. I was on the M50 on the morning in question, and it was gridlocked. There was an accident and I was on the road for an hour with trucks sitting in the same gridlock. The benefit of having a balanced system with the development of Limerick, Cork, Waterford and Wexford, as well as other ports, is that we can get that balance in the system and are not putting all of the pressure on Dublin.

With regard to Limerick and investment in rail, it will take time to turn the city back to how things worked throughout its history. For five decades, we have ignored rail lines and run them down. As soon as we opened the Ennis line, it exceeded all expectations. People want to use public transport, but we have not provided it. We have had too much emphasis on other methods of transport. We have to view this as a long-term investment.

The State failed to do develop Limerick sufficiently well. The Buchanan report made recommendations in the 1960s. We have nowhere near the population Limerick was expected to have. When we invest in rail lines we have to think in terms of 50 and 100 years. We need to think of a Limerick twice its size, which is what it should be, in order to be the capital of the mid-west and continue as a successful manufacturing, trading and education centre. In order to do that, we need to invest and think big and at scale. The four lines need to be metropolitan services with electric battery trains running at a regular frequency in order that as the city grows, which it needs to do, it will do so along rail lines rather than along roads. If it grows along roads, not only will that not work for climate, the mathematics will not work. There will be too many cars and gridlock for everyone. By providing rail services, Limerick will survive.

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