Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

Today, I am delighted to resume statements on the all-island strategic rail review recommendations. In my constituency of Kildare North, many people depend on rail transport to commute to work and I have been one of those over the years and continue to be. People living in towns such as Naas, Maynooth, Kilcock, Leixlip and Celbridge all commute daily. I commend the work the National Transport Authority, NTA, has done so far on building a strong rail service to our capital city. Over the years as my career has continued, I have seen those improvements. The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, in his statements last week acknowledged that the works for DART+ West to Maynooth and DART+ South West to Hazelhatch and Celbridge have been approved. This will double the city centre's rail capacity, which is vital for people living in my constituency. I have raised this issue already in the Dáil many times and I have raised it previously as a councillor, but I would I like to see the DART+ West project extended to also serve the people of Kilcock.

More nationally, I welcome the fact that rail journey times between the island's major cities would be significantly reduced, by 50% in some cases, with the introduction of the plans here and that there would be an introduction of hourly services between key cities. We have all seen those maps through the years of what our rail service used to look like and Ireland was greatly connected by rail. These modern, new upgrades will hopefully bring us back to that. The report outlines the hopes to connect as many towns of 10,000 or more to the rail network as possible. In the report, we also see the benefits we could get. We could have increased speeds of up to 200 km/h on core routes. Previously, that is something we might only have seen in the likes of Japan and France with their bullet trains. We all looked longingly at those compared with our own trains. We need to get there. In the modern State we have, with the financial support we have and the investment we are ready to give, we need to get there. Like that, it also calls for quadrupling tracking and capacity expansion near Dublin, which should be rolled out further. Hourly intercity services with two-hour regional frequencies were previously things we could only dream about.

As I outlined, we will see the extension of electrification and the rolling stock replacement. Once again, that is critical. I talk about electrification and, as I speak, the lights go out in the Chamber. I do not want to blame myself for that but it is exactly what happened. We would have DART underground - I shudder to think that when I say "DART underground", the place will shake - inclusion as a long-term goal too. Ultimately, these are all plans on a report and something we need to get to.

As the report says, rail has the potential to deliver on accessibility, climate, connectivity, economic growth, environmental and regional development goals across the island. As a country, we have had our borders - real borders and borders we do not see - but at the same time, somehow our rail has always been limited by them. We need to get back to our pre-State situation where lines did come across the Border. I welcome the statements we are making on the report that was delivered previously. I welcome the Minister's engagement on this and I, for one, want to see all the items put in place.

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