Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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96. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to provide an update on the work his Department is undertaking following the review of the national development plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52148/25]

Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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Could the Minister provide an update on the work his Department is undertaking following the review of the national development plan? Could he specifically outline how projects are being assessed at the moment by his Department for inclusion in the plan, the criteria he is using to assess projects and how they will be prioritised in terms of timelines for delivery?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for his question, which follows on very much from the question asked by his party's spokesperson. The Deputy will be aware that transport was one of the four prioritised areas for investment under this NDP review and we secured a core allocation of €22.3 billion across the next five years, with a further €2 billion allocated from the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature and Fund to assist with the delivery of MetroLink.

The allocation is significant both as a share of the overall NDP investment and in comparison to the last five years, which saw approximately €13 billion allocated toward transport between 2021 and 2025. It shows the much-needed and significant increase in that capital funding.

As with all other Departments, we are now preparing a transport sectoral plan, as I mentioned to Deputy Daly, for publication in the coming weeks, which will provide further sectoral details in relation to the distribution of those investments and that allocation across the various programmes right across the Department. The Deputy asked about criteria. A clear focus of that plan will be on providing greater certainty on the projects and programmes that will advance and get delivered in the next five years. Deliverability and commencement of projects, and obviously making sure projects are moving through planning, are particularly important.

In developing that plan, I will obviously take cognisance of commitments under the programme for Government, as well as overarching policy commitments already made under the national planning framework, the climate action plan and the sustainable mobility plan. Things like transport-orientated development are going to be critical to enable us to build more homes to add to the 135,000 homes we built in the past five years. A real area of focus for the Government is linking all our critical infrastructure investment to support the delivery of large-scale housing. We have a real opportunity to do that and transport-orientated development in that regard will greatly assist.

Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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Funding announcements are very welcome but, obviously, what will matter is the delivery of projects and it is clear there are serious deficits in our transport infrastructure across the State. We have yet to see the detail of the plan and what projects are going to be funded and delivered. As Deputy Daly pointed out, the only project specifically mentioned in the NDP was MetroLink. As I have mentioned to the Minister many times, the west and north west is one of the most underdeveloped regions in Europe when it comes to infrastructure, particularly in respect of transport infrastructure. I can think of many projects such as the western rail corridor, the Gluas, many road projects and more that are badly needed in the west of Ireland. I ask the Minister to specifically outline how this plan will be regionally balanced. How will he ensure it is regionally balanced? Will he be applying a particular ratio in terms of funding, between the regions? How is he going to ensure that every region gets its fair share?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. He is advocating strongly for his own area and I believe he would agree that while a lot of progress has been made in the past five or ten years on infrastructural investment and infrastructure full stop, as our population - thankfully - continues to grow and as our economy thankfully is still in full employment because of the hard work of our people and the economic and policy decisions made by this Government and the previous one, we must make sure we catch up where there are infrastructural deficits. In the coming weeks, the Department of Transport and all Departments effectively will be publishing their own NDP. That will be a sectoral analysis, detailing the projects that will be included as we do in the roads programme. We see roads progressing, and we are seeing roads being built. We are seeing rail lines progress, as I mentioned in my response to Deputy Daly, such as Foynes, the Cork commuter rail and the work being done in Galway. I note Deputy Connolly is present as well. We have a lot to do in that space. We will be publishing each departmental plan around the NDP. One euro in four of investment secured is going into public transport.

Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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The question was how the Minister was going to ensure that is regionally balanced. In terms of regional balance, one issue I have repeatedly raised is overcrowding on rail services between Athenry and Galway. We have the passing loop coming at Oranmore, which is welcome, but it will be some time before that is delivered and ultimately, we need full double-tracking of that section between Athenry and Galway City. I urge the Minister to ensure that is included in his plan. In the short term, we have a real crisis for commuters travelling into Galway city from Athenry, as I have previously raised with the Minister. The 7.49 a.m. service from Athenry is the first morning service into Galway city. In recent weeks some services have been completely sold out. People have been left behind at platforms and people actually have been injured as a result of overcrowding. As these are people who work at the hospital in Galway and students who are forced to commute into the city because of accommodation shortages, a reliable rail service is absolutely critical to them. We do not have the capacity at present. When I previously raised this with the Minister, he said he would engage with Irish Rail on this issue. Can he provide an update on that and if any short-term solutions will be implemented?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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To ensure balanced regional development, the national planning framework will guide that and the NDP itself. As for the commitments we have made in the programme for Government, the two parties and the Independents came together to ensure and commit to a balanced regional development and we will ensure that it happens. This morning, I met the incoming new chief executive of Iarnród Éireann at Heuston Station. That was on the occasion of our announcement of the companion pass for the over-70s that means over 500,000 additional people will be able to avail of free transport when accompanying the over-70s. We introduced the five-to-eight-year-old free travel card across all our networks. We want more and more people to use our public transport. That is happening but we must make sure we have more capacity. That is not just capacity in the lines themselves, it is in the carriages. We have secured the first phase of the new carriages, which were purchased by the last Government. They will be initially rolled out on the northern line and then all the way across the country. That will add to the rolling stock we have. The passing loop will happen. The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, gave the Deputy a very detailed response in our last oral questions here on transport about matters specifically in the Deputy's constituency. During the coming weeks, we will publish the transport sectoral plan