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

I am glad Irish Rail was able to adjust the timetable on the eastern corridor because it was inconveniencing commuters. I hope the change will bring the schedule back on track. We are investing significantly in the east coast. As I said, the first line to be part of this new electrified rail system will be that running to Drogheda, which will see the use of new battery electric trains. We are putting major investment into Drogheda to upscale the power system to be able to run the battery electric trains there. Similarly, I believe we can accelerate, deliver and get those same teams working seamlessly on putting in what is a relatively easy upgrade in Wicklow station to install an electric charging point. This would allow battery electric trains to be run to Wicklow. This would transform what is a constrained area in terms of travel from Wicklow to Dublin.

While I agree that we need to build the infrastructure in the north west and the western rail corridor will help in this regard, as will investment in the Sligo line, we need to build up our other cities - Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick - as counterbalances to Dublin. This means investment is needed in those cities. Coming back to the funding issue, the funding is not there for the public transport projects we need in Galway, Cork, Waterford and Limerick, or for town bus services right across the country.

The next Government will face hard choices. People who think we can do everything will have to answer honest questions about whether they will prioritise public transport and spend the money now on public transport in the same way we have done on motorways over the last two decades so we can turn our country around in a way that is more sustainable and has better balanced regional development.

See this speech in context