Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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In 1862, the Dublin-to-Meath railway line was constructed comprising a branch from Clonsilla to Navan. One hundred years later, Córas Iompair Éireann closed and lifted the line. There is only one functioning line into the middle of the county, that is, the Drogheda to Tara Mines line. Tara Mines is one of the few freight lines operating in the country at present and it takes approximately 40 HGVs off the road every day. The NTA has refused to transform that freight line back into a passenger line stating that due to the journey time from Navan to Dublin via Drogheda, it would not be used, but when one considers the figures I will cite later on, that is debatable.

In 1946, the rail line functioned into County Meath while the population was only 60,000. Now the population of County Meath is 200,000. As a Dublin man, the Minister will be happy to hear that there will be 250,000 of us Meath people living in the country very shortly.

Each morning, more Meath people leave the county to go to work than work in the county. That is the only county in the country where that happens. We have the notoriety of having the highest rate of commuting in the country. Yet Navan is the largest town in the country without a rail line. That has a massive cost on society. It is a major cost on business, it is a major cost on enterprise and it also involves a major cost on families.

For the average family who are commuting from Navan currently, the commute at rush hour takes roughly three hours a day. If one takes that back and forth, it is roughly the equivalent to 90 days unpaid work for everybody who is commuting from Navan currently. If one lives in places such as Oldcastle, Athboy or Trim, that daily commute often increases to four hours a day in rush hour - two hours in the morning and two hours back to those places - which is the equivalent of 120 days unpaid work on an annual basis. There is certainly a major cost on business, but the Minister can imagine a mother or father undertaking 720 hours commuting on an annual basis from these towns and how their family life is negatively affected as a result.

There are also major costs to the families themselves. If one lives in Kells and works in south Dublin, one will pay two tolls a day. This involves a cost of €2,350 a year on tolls for anybody in Kells or Oldcastle working in south Dublin. The average cost of running a car is €4,500 on an annual basis. Private transportation is a significant cost to individuals.

There are also massive environmental costs. This has been brought to the fore today, which is a good development. Ireland faces approximately €600 million worth of fines by 2020 if we do not meet our climate change targets. By 2030, we could face €5.5 billion worth of fines in this country if we do not meet our climate change obligations. There is a trend within transportation, of which the Minister is in charge, of an increase of between 10% and 16% in the level of CO2 being emitted before 2020. We are going completely in the wrong direction with regards CO2 emissions in transportation at present. That is not only about polar bears. We are talking about an increase in temperature of between 2.6° to 4.8° Celsius, which will lead to untold environmental damage and deaths.

Industry, business, family, safety, environment and health are being radically damaged at present due to the lack of provision of projects such as the Navan-to-Dublin rail line.

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue in the House today.

As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding of public transport. The National Transport Authority has responsibility for the development of public transport infrastructure in the greater Dublin area, which includes County Meath, and Iarnród Éireann is responsible for the maintenance and operation of the heavy rail network.

The Navan rail link project was included under the Transport 21 initiative and was to be developed in two phases: Phase 1 comprised the Dunboyne rail line project. This involved the reopening of 7.5 km of a railway line running off the Maynooth line, at Clonsilla, to the M3 interchange near Dunboyne. This line opened in September 2010 with park-and-ride facilities with 1,200 car parking spaces available and at Dunboyne with 300 car parking spaces available. Phase 1 was completed in 2013 with the opening of Hansfield Station. The plan for phase 2 involved the extension of the Dunboyne line between Clonsilla and M3 Parkway station, onwards to north Navan. This development, together with a number of other transport projects, was postponed in 2011 due to the economic and fiscal crisis.

The Deputy may be aware that the NTA, which has statutory responsibility for development of public transport in the greater Dublin area, GDA, included an examination of the Navan to city centre rail corridor in the preparation of its transport strategy for the GDA for the period 2016-2035. The NTA concluded that, based on current population and employment forecasts, the level of travel demand between Navan, Dunshaughlin and various stations to the city centre is insufficient to justify the development of a high-capacity rail link at this time. Instead, the authority proposes to develop an enhanced bus service along the route and to develop a bus hub in Navan. This position will be kept under review taking account of future developments in the catchment area and the NTA recommends that the corridor identified for a rail link to Navan should be protected from development intrusion.

Exchequer funding for public transport projects is set out in the Government's capital plan. The transport element of the plan covers the period up to 2022. I have previously outlined that my Department's first priority under the capital plan is to ensure the maintenance of our existing transport infrastructure at steady-state levels in order that it remains safe and fit for purpose. Based on the funding allocations for public transport under the capital plan, we should achieve steady-state levels by 2020. In view of the current constraints on availability of funding, the priority for the heavy rail network under the plan is to improve efficiency and maintain safety standards rather than expanding the network by opening new lines or stations. A mid-term review of the capital plan is under way and I will seek to improve the funding available for public transport in that context.

If additional funds were to be made available, there would be many competing demands within the public transport sector. All projects would be subject to robust analysis and would require strong business cases to justify their value and demonstrate how they would significantly improve the public transport system. The House will be aware that the role of heavy rail in Ireland's transport sector is under review. A public consultation process on the rail review document prepared jointly by the National Transport Authority, NTA, and larnród Éireann concluded on 18 January. The NTA is preparing a report about the process which I intend to bring to Government in due course. The public consultation process gave the public and all interested parties the opportunity to give their views and contribute to the debate on the future of heavy rail in Ireland. No decisions on any changes to the rail network will be made until the outcome of the public consultation process has been evaluated and the NTA's report considered. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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With due respect, the Minister will not even be happy with the answer provided because the first third of it was a civil servant's potted history of the rail line itself. I welcome robust analysis. No project should ever happen in the Department without robust analysis, but how is this for robust analysis? Meath has roughly the same population as Kildare, a higher population than Wicklow and a higher population than Louth, yet both of those counties are well served by regular rail services into Dublin.

The Minister said he is responsible for policy and that the NTA and Iarnród Éireann are responsible for transport and heavy rail lines, but he is responsible for those two organisations as well. It is not the case that he shares the Department with them. He is in charge of all those organisations. The NTA said the people of Meath should have buses, but the fact is there is no continuous bus route from the centre of County Meath into Dublin. The bus lanes have massive pinch points along the way and traffic regularly gets snarled up.

Not only is Navan the largest town in the country not to have a rail line but the bus service is the most expensive one in the country. The cost works out at 26 cent per kilometre compared with the Dublin to Drogheda route which costs 16 cent per kilometre. We are not talking about a massive distance. We are only talking about 30 km on an alignment that already exists.

There are two variables that will determine whether this project goes ahead. The first is population. As we discussed, Meath has roughly the same population as comparable counties. The second variable is political will. The issue is whether the Independent Alliance has the political will to build the necessary infrastructure in this country. The truth of the matter is that capital investment in this country is second from the bottom in the European Union. The only country beating the Minister with regard to low investment is Romania. Until that changes, the Minister will not be fulfilling his responsibility.

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I thank Deputy Tóibín, who makes a very good case. I do not dispute that for a second. It is fair enough that Navan is the largest town in the country without a rail line. Some town has to be the largest town in this country without a rail line. Someone was going to make that case at some time. However, the Deputy makes a good case and provided he makes a good commercial case, the project will not be ruled out.

As I pointed out in my initial contribution, "This position will be kept under review taking account of future developments in the catchment area and the NTA recommends that the corridor identified for a rail link to Navan should be protected from development intrusion." That should be taken by the Deputy as encouragement at a time when new railways are not being built, for good reasons, namely, because of the financial constraints upon us. It is fully explained that the existing transport infrastructure is being kept "at steady-state levels" for the moment, and that is the absolute imperative for us. It is all very well to say we are undercapitalised and we have the lowest capital investment of any country in Europe, but at the moment we do not have any capital. That is the reason. We do not have capital for such projects, but when the mid-term capital review is completed and when more capital is available, which will be 2019 to 2020, I would have thought the project in question would be one of the first to be considered. As Deputy Tóibín so helpfully said, I am sure I will not be in office at that time, but someone else will and it is a project that would be looked at seriously. The fact the NTA has said not to build or develop on that line indicates to me that it is one of the projects being considered for the future.