Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

I would like to raise the Limerick to Ballybrophy regional line with the Minister of State. Before coming in here, I told one of my colleagues what I was going to speak on and the response was, "Oh, do you have a railway line in north Tipperary?" This railway line is probably one of Iarnród Éireann's best-kept secrets.

It services Birdhill, Nenagh, Cloughjordan and Roscrea but it is a regional line within infrequent services that sees a lot of cancellations. To be fair to Irish Rail, it has seen significant investment in recent years, particularly in continuous welded rail. It links County Limerick and rural towns and villages in north Tipperary to the main Dublin-Cork line. It has massive strategic and regional importance and enormous potential for the people I represent to connect us far more by rail to Limerick, but also to Cork and Dublin. However, investment is needed. The all-island strategic rail review states lines such as this should see one train per two hours on regional lines. That is the frequency we need to get to for this route. We need faster speeds. To do that we need to reduce the number of rail crossings, particularly manual rail crossings on that line so trains can go faster. The investment has been put into the continuous welded rail, but Irish Rail is limited by the number of manual crossings that are there. They either need to be removed or automated to allow trains to move faster to give more commuters a reason to travel along that line and get to places faster, but also more frequently.

I wish to bring this line to the attention of this House because I am conscious many Members do not seem to know about it. I would be delighted to welcome the Minister of State to Birdhill, Nenagh, Cloughjordan or Roscrea. The train station in Cloughjordan is only 1 km from my home. He would be very welcome for a cup of tea while he there as well.

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