Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)

I am sitting here kind of amused though I probably should not be. There is obviously a regional disparity in the investment in rail services. I listened to the contributions of the Social Democrats and there is obviously a Cork bias because the Cork representatives, even within my own party, seem reasonably happy with the level of investment we are receiving. Things in the west are starkly different from what is happening in Cork, where it is predominantly a good news story. We are getting massive investment not just in heavy rail but also in the light rail system for the future. There is much to be hopeful about. Speaking strictly geographically and with a geographical bias, it is clear that in Cork anywhere up to 11 new stations are planned. I am being told that at least three, if not four, of those can be delivered by the end of this decade. That will predominantly benefit my constituency. We are looking at the possibility of an additional station at Tivoli. There will definitely be additional stations at Dunkettle and Blackpool and there will possibly be another at Blarney. That is without mentioning the stations that Deputy Quaide referred to in east Cork. For us, that allows travel every 15 minutes. We also benefit from the double-tracking to which Deputy John Connolly alluded. To be fair, it has been transformative for people on the eastern line, in particular, where I am living in the Little Island area.

In conjunction with that, we are also looking at the additional park-and-ride facility. At the new Dunkettle station, in an area called North Esk, there is due to be a park-and-ride facility. We have spoken about that facility for 20 bloody years at this stage but I am hoping that the National Transport Authority, NTA, will finally give Irish Rail the funding to deliver it and to alleviate some of the traffic problems Deputy Quaide spoke about, particularly at the interchange.

A bugbear of mine is that even though we talk about the increased frequency from which we are all going to benefit, lazy people, such as me, still opt for the car. It is partially out of laziness, and I hold my hands up in that regard, but the timetable can be very rigid. I hope when we have the full benefit of electric lines and double-tracking that we will be able to move having a train later at night. We are talking about the late-night economy in Cork city centre, in particular, but to facilitate that, we will have to put on extra buses through BusConnects and extra trains on the newly developed electric lines. That needs to be scrutinised.

I know that light rail is not exclusively covered under this plan, but we have a problem in Cork that is similar to the problem in Dublin. There is talk of bringing the metro to Dublin Airport. People might consider the heavy rail option of connecting Clongriffin station to the airport in Dublin. That could be achieved in a relatively quick time compared to the plan for the metro. The situation is similar in Cork. We have no plans to connect light or heavy rail to the airport. It is about providing connectivity and giving people the option. That needs to be reflected in the review.

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