Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Gabhaim buíochas don Aire Stáit as ucht teacht isteach.

I received an email recently from the students union in Galway. It said it had received multiple reports from students who get the train into the city from Athenry that it is often full or late and that there have even been cases where students have been refused entry to the train as they did not have a ticket for that specific journey despite having a monthly ticket that permits them on the train. The writer assumed I had likely heard, which I had, and had heard it from many people, that the trains in and out of Galway are packed and the trains from Limerick and Dublin are similarly packed.

There are 17 trains from Athenry to Galway. Some of those originate in Limerick and some originate from the Dublin direction. That is, on the face of it, quite a success because it is not so many years ago that people were saying it had been foolish to open the Limerick to Galway line. It has also been verified to me that the trains from Limerick are full when they get to Athenry and that the section of the line that was meant to carry no passengers was, according to Iarnród Éireann, the most rapidly growing line in terms of patronage in 2022. We will have to see what 2023 has brought but, by all records, this is absolutely true. We have a great success story. Of course, I have often believed that if you build it, they will come. Especially with railways, we have seen time and again that if you build it, they will come. In places where people believed there never would be patronage, there is massive patronage. We can say that is great, and I am delighted as I was involved in the initial investment, but we need to do more.

It is an awful tragedy that people cannot get on trains when they have paid for their tickets. It is a tragedy that when people want to take public transport, they find the service cannot accommodate them. It is important we sweat the assets. We are always talking about the metro. I have been a proponent of the metro for the past 20 years but it is also important we do the simple things and sweat the assets.

Put in simple terms, what can be done? The first thing is more carriages could be put on the trains. Longer trains provide better capacity. The second thing we need are longer platforms so that longer trains can be accommodated because, I understand, particularly on the Limerick line, one of the constraining factors is that the platforms are not long enough for six-carriage trains. Slightly more long term are more passing loops, and the most urgent place - it is in train as they are going for planning permission this year - is to get that passing loop between Athenry and Galway which will allow for a radical increase in the frequency of the trains.

I am anxious to find out today what programme the Government has on all of those fronts: longer trains where there is the capacity, lengthening the platforms to take longer trains, which is a relatively simply job, and then putting in the passing loops we need so that we can get a much greater frequency on these single-line tracks. What we need is a train not every 40 minutes but down to every quarter of an hour in each direction in the long term. In the short term, will the Minister of State tell me what will be done to make sure that if a person turns up for the train, that person can get on the train?

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Ó Cuív sincerely for raising this important topic which, he will understand, I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Ryan.

I clarify, as the Deputy will be well aware, that the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding in public transport, but neither the Minister nor his officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. The statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally rests with the National Transport Authority. However, I reassure the Deputy that Iarnród Éireann is working towards a strategy for substantial enhancement of services on intercity routes in the short to medium term, including Dublin to Galway and Limerick to Galway. However, it must be noted these enhancements will be subject to agreement with and funding by the NTA, as well as the completion of other projects to release rolling stock to realise these service enhancements.

More immediately, while the existing Iarnród Éireann operational fleet is already fully deployed on scheduled services, last year larnród Éireann took delivery of the final batch of 41 intercity rail cars, with the carriages to enter service during 2024.

The exact deployment of the additional carriages is still to be determined but they should allow for capacity increases across the network.

On the Dublin to Galway line, I understand that Iarnród Éireann continues to operate the pre-Covid schedule on this line, with ten train services each way daily. Further, I understand that Iarnród Éireann intends to implement substantial enhancements in intercity service levels on the Dublin to Galway line, building towards an hourly service in the coming months. More generally, Iarnród Éireann is maximising use of its rolling stock to meet demand and will continue to monitor passenger loadings, as the Deputy has described. I understand that passenger numbers have recovered significantly post-pandemic, particularly on longer distance rail services.

The next significant rail expansion involves two initial orders of 185 electric and battery-electric carriages for the DART+ fleet, placed in December 2021, which is 95 carriages, and December 2022, which is 90 carriages. Up to 750 carriages in total are to be ordered over the coming decade. The first 95 carriages will arrive from the middle of this year, entering service from 2025. This will allow for further service improvements across the rail network. I want to reassure the Deputy that the Department of Transport, the NTA and Iarnród Éireann are working to ensure the optimised deployment of resources across the public transport network to match changing passenger demand patterns.

The Deputy has outlined what I consider to be reasonable requests but they are ambitious ones. He is right; I do not know if deliberately quoted "Field of Dreams" but I fully agree with him that if you build it they will come. As someone who is lucky to live on a light rail network in my part of the world, a part of the world the Deputy knows as well as I do, it has transformed the commuter experience for so many generations of people since it came into operation 20 years ago. The Government is committed to making sure that is realised for Galway as well. I am sure the Minister, Deputy Ryan, completely shares this. I undertake to bring all of this back to him and to make sure the Deputy gets those detailed updates from his office and the NTA as they develop over this coming year.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I have one advantage over the Minister of State in that I travelled on the old Harcourt Street railway line before it was abandoned and sold precipitously. It was way too slow when they decided to reopen it and parts of it had been built on. There is a salutary message in this. Why did they close it? They said they would not have the passengers. They say the same thing about Limerick to Galway and Athenry to Claremorris. As I said, the people come.

The second thing is that I am always amused when people start mentioning the DART in an answer on Galway because there is no DART in Galway. It reminds me of the DART to Dingle, which the Minister of State is probably too young to remember. It was a Celtic tiger joke because of the lack of services in rural Ireland.

The Minister of State might clarify the following point to me: what is the role of the Minister if he has no role in any of these things? Every time we put a question to the Department of Transport about anything, we are told the Minister has no role in the matter. I often wonder why we are paying him a salary at all. The Minister of State and I know that the Minister has a role because he who controls the purse controls the policy. We have these extra carriages and I need to know how many of those will be deployed on the Galway to Dublin line.

What will be done to make sure that extra carriages can be deployed on the Limerick to Galway line? On that line people are literally sitting on the floor in the train. This is the line that was not going to carry any passengers. The thing we need is longer platforms, a simple ask. I need to know how many of these extra carriages we will get, when we will get an increase on the services outlined here and what will be done to increase the ability of the Galway to Limerick line to have more capacity to measure up against existing demand, not to mind future demand.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I am interested in this as well. I know the Minister of State will not have the answer but maybe he will ask the Minister, Deputy Ryan. In his reply the Minister of State said: "The first 95 carriages will arrive from mid-2024, entering service from 2025." If they are coming in 2024 why would they not be put immediately into service? Why would they have to wait until 2025?

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Beyond the Minister, Deputy Ryan, Deputy Matthews is the expert. As a rail engineer he spent 20 years working on the railways. I am sure there is a good reason there is a gap between arrival and deployment. There is a time delay and I will make sure the Minister, Deputy Ryan, tracks-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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If I bought a new car tomorrow I would not want to wait for six months before I could drive it.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I am sure there is a version of spinning it around the showroom but I will make sure the Minister, Deputy Ryan, provides clarity there. Deputy Matthews spent ages on this tonight and he would have known for sure.

I will not repeat and reiterate things that Deputy Ó Cuív knows better than I because he has been there and has seen what the Department of Transport has been doing in enhancing the capacity of the Galway area network when it comes to rail, nor will I insult him by stating exactly when these carriages will come online because he and I know I do not have that exact answer. The Deputy raises an interesting point and there is no need for a philosophical debate but he served in government for a hell of a lot longer than I did so he knows exactly the role of a Minister and a State agency and the frustration all of us feel when the reply is not directly forthcoming from the Minister's office.

However, the budget that has been allocated in the Department to ensure we have a massive increase in public transport services, particularly in rail and light rail, wherever it may be in the country, has been increased year on year, and it is a budget provided to the NTA to make sure there are realistic ambitions based on various feasibility studies. I agree with the Deputy. I know that the Minister, Deputy Ryan, is massively committed to the Deputy on the upgrade of services into Galway, from Limerick and Dublin, via Athenry. This will be achieved. It will not be exactly at the rate and timeline that the Deputy aspires to. It should be but there are lots of issues at play. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Ryan, to give the Deputy a direct response from his office and not to defer to another agency on exactly when the 41 new carriages will be deployed and on how many will be deployed to specific lines. I will also ask him to reply to An Ceann Comhairle about when they will get on track.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta agus go speisialta leis an Aire Stáit as a bheith anseo ag an am déanach seo istoíche.