Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)

I am delighted to speak on the all-island rail review. We need to see a major modal shift in how we get ourselves from one place to another on this island so that we are not so dependent on our cars. Rail will obviously play a huge role in that. We have a somewhat sorry history in this country when it comes to rail infrastructure. What was once a fairly comprehensive rail network in the early parts of the 20th century was progressively ripped up as time went on. There are a number of reasons for this but it was mainly due to the proliferation of private car use. With that, rail infrastructure made way for road infrastructure, not least in Dublin city, where our tramlines were ripped up.

I want to get us back to where we were previously in terms of coverage and to restore that once great rail network. I hope that this strategic review can provide some of the impetus and a template to do just that. I have concerns, though. They are not necessarily about what is included in the review, but what is omitted. I am conscious that this is not a policy document, but something to inform policymakers. I encourage this and future Governments to implement the recommendations that have emerged from the review but also to go beyond it and fill in those gaps that have been missed.

Others have and will raise their own concerns and mention where they think improvements could be made. I will come back to mine and begin with the positives. There is a lot to be positive about in this document. As the Labour Party's spokesperson on climate, energy and environment, as well as our transport spokesperson, I welcome the fact there is a strong focus on decarbonisation in the review. The DART remains the only electrified heavy rail line in the country and the last significant project undertaken here, in terms of electrified heavy rail, was the DART extension to Greystones 25 years ago. We need to do so much better than this. Rail has a big part to play in helping us reduce our transport emissions and the electrification of our rail lines will be key to that. I recently met Iarnród Éireann CEO Jim Meade and I know he is very keen on this element. I left that meeting with Jim Meade thinking he should be running the country, to be honest. I also welcome the focus on improving frequency and efficiency for service users. That would be key to encouraging people to use our rail systems. That is something we could really do with in the short term.

Broadly, we need to be more strategic and flexible in our timetabling. We could be doing better around facilitating more frequent services during peak demand times or when big events are happening. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, will be aware of the situation with the DART services following the recent Charli XCX concert in his constituency.

I appreciate the focus on interconnectivity between our major cities. This is crucial to regional and balanced economic development. However, regarding emissions, I question why a direct line between Cork city and Limerick city has not been included. I also question why the western rail corridor has not been extended to Donegal in this review. The north west has been abandoned in terms of rail infrastructure and the proposals in the review do not rectify that to any great extent. If we do want to achieve balanced regional development, that needs to be looked at.

Staying with the west, I will raise a matter on behalf of my colleague, Senator Nessa Cosgrove. The review mentions reinstating the Athenry to Claremorris line but not the Claremorris to Collooney line. We would like to see that line reinstated.

I have not spoken about MetroLink, as I am sure my colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, is going to cover that. However, as a TD for Dublin South-West, I reiterate my call for an independent feasibility study for a metro out to there. It was included in the programme for Government but is nowhere in the strategic rail review. We would like to see that. There are more than 350,000 people living in Dublin South-West with no access to rail infrastructure unless they live on the very edge of the constituency. All I am asking for is a fair assessment of the case, given the issues identified with a previous feasibility study.

See this speech in context