Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I have listened in envy to some of my colleagues talk about the wonderful rail services they have and how much more they need, because in this rail review the Rosslare line was an afterthought. Hardly any consideration was given to improving the services south of Wicklow town. While I welcome that we are talking about extending the DART services to Greystones in Wicklow, it is intended in this review to force passengers south of that line - those who get on in Rathdrum, Arklow, Gorey or stations further south - to change trains in Wicklow or Greystones. That is not going to happen on any other line. On a cold wet morning, commuters will have to change trains and no consideration has been given to those with disabilities or mobility difficulties.

There is talk of doubling the number of lines from two to four on the northern line. Can we also consider doubling it on the Rosslare line from one to two? We hear colleagues talking about the services that are provided. Let me look at the services for commuters in areas around the country that are equidistant from Dublin. For those coming from Dundalk or Drogheda, as Deputy Nash does, there are 16 services available every day. From Portlaoise, which is also the same distance from Dublin as some of the areas I represent, there are 32 services. From Carlow, there are 11 services. However, if you are travelling from Rathdrum, Arklow or Gorey to Dublin there is a maximum of six services on any day and we are served by the worst rail carriages in the country. When I raised this recently with Iarnród Éireann, the promise for improving carriages was, that when it puts all the new carriages on all the other tracks, it will give whatever is left over to Rosslare.

The problem is we are not seeing improvements to the M11. I raised this when Eamon Ryan was Minister for Transport. The M11 is the spine that runs through Wicklow and Wexford and links us with the capital. If we do not see improvements on that route, one would expect us to be trying to get people onto the trains, but the rail service serving the east coast is not fit for purpose.

Part of the challenge, especially when coming in from Bray, is there are six level crossings that delay some of the services. Can they be removed? Equally, commitments have often been made around areas to allow the trains coming from Rosslare to pass the DART on the southside of Dublin. All we are asking for is that we would go some way towards providing a service for counties Wicklow and Wexford to match the services in other parts of the country. I will quite happily call it "the Canney train" if the Minister of State delivers it. We might even go so far as to call it "the Canney line".

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