Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister to the House. I thank him for his contribution, which I found very positive, unlike the comments of Senator Bannon. The three objectives of the strategy to which the Minister referred — better spread of job opportunities, better quality of life and better places to live — are very important and I commend the Government on the progress made in this regard.

The Irish Independent published an article by Treacy Hogan when the national spatial strategy was launched in November 2002. It was headed "Planning to get it right this time on traffic and housing", but contained much on other issues. With regard to the national spatial strategy, Mr. Hogan stated:

The timing is perfect. Most young people can no longer afford to live in the Dublin area and are being forced to move further and further out to the country into long-distance dormitory towns.

This is an important issue. As the Minister stated, we are talking about better quality of life, better places to live and job opportunities. We know the huge pulling power of Dublin. People in the west and outside Dublin are often jealous when Dublin or east coast areas get development that other areas do not get. This follows on from the huge growth in population. Experts and Mr. Hogan claim that Dublin will have an even greater population in 20 years. We must have a strategy in place to ensure that other parts of the country are developed, that there are other places to live and work and that there is a better quality of life.

Senator Bannon raised issues regarding Knock Airport. I am familiar with this and Galway's airport. They are doing very well. The chairman of Knock Airport recently spoke of its great success and development and the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs will be decentralised to that area. We do not need to worry about Knock Airport or investment in it. I sympathise with Senator Bannon's concerns about the western rail corridor. I do not understand why that corridor, or any section of it, was not included in the rail review. Cork was mentioned, for example. The Minister said the Midleton to Cork line will receive investment.

Many costings have been rendered for the western rail line, be it called Sligo to Cork or the so-called "euroroute" of Sligo to Limerick and Rosslare. Some of these costings are absolutely inexplicable because the Sligo to Collooney line is currently included in the Dublin line, the Limerick to Cork line was always there and a good rail service from Ennis to Limerick opened recently. We must examine the issue of what I call the "missing piece" between Collooney and Ennis, including Galway city's commuter traffic. The Minister for Transport has spoken about addressing this matter in the ten-year transport investment network and the working group has considered the feasibility of the western rail corridor since June 2004. I hope the group will finalise its deliberations soon.

This route passes through many of the disadvantaged areas of the west. The chairman of the western inter-county rail committee, Fr. Michéal MacGréil, has lectured in Maynooth and written on this subject often. He has highlighted that this section of rail line passes through towns suffering depopulation and poor economies. I agree with his belief that it would be of great benefit to the west to have a rail line complemented by a road network that jointly would be a euroroute as far as Rosslare.

Tuam has been classified as both a hub town and a RAPID town. However, its railway station has fallen into disrepair. I welcomed the visit of the former Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, to Tuam as part of a full-day tour starting in Tubbercurry and travelling to all the towns along that railway. This link was in use until 1975 when the freight and passenger services finished. We must emphasise the importance of this particular rail network and the difference it could make if the service was available.

I have often commented on the Dublin to Galway railway line and said that 10.15 a.m. was the earliest arrival time in Galway city. On 10 January 2005 Iarnród Éireann decided to commence a Monday to Saturday service that leaves Athlone at 7 a.m. and arrives in Galway at 8.20 a.m., serving Ballinasloe, Woodlawn, Attymon and Athenry. I compliment Iarnród Éireann on this as it has been a very successful service in the six weeks or so that it has operated. It is the type of service that should be made available to commuter traffic whether it is from Claremorris, for example, through Tuam to Athenry or from Ennis to Gort and Galway city. These services were once used by workers and students. We have such traffic problems in places like Loughrea, where a bypass is being built, and the very busy village of Claregalway on the N17 that we must operate this rail service again. The opportunity the Government has provided to allow this service to be addressed in the ten-year transport investment framework is very welcome.

We should also look at the issue of integrated transport. Train and bus services can be complementary rather than competitive, as they sometimes are, and there should be a better combined bus and train frequency. I welcome the prospect of Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann discussing this issue. Some of the rural transport initiatives are good examples, such as community transport operators linking with Iarnród Éireann services.

I am amazed at the high number of costings of the rail corridor. One reason, perhaps, is that people are examining Sligo to Limerick or Sligo to Cork or Sligo to Limerick and Rosslare, but the "missing piece" of the Collooney to Ennis line has been costed at approximately €370 million by the director of services in Galway County Council. This figure is much smaller than the amounts first quoted by the rail review.

I wish to put this in context. I have always welcomed work on bypasses. When the bypasses of Lucan, Leixlip, Maynooth and Kilcock occurred, people in Galway asked me why all of the money was being spent in the eastern region, but it has been of great benefit to everyone irrespective of their location to see this work taking place. We are now undertaking work on the Kinnegad route so that there will be a direct route from Galway to Dublin eventually. I welcome the Minister's comments regarding the €1.4 billion spending on national roads. It is important that we do not overlook roads while discussing the railways but the same people in Galway will refer to the headline in today's paper about €1 billion earmarked for a ring road to beat the M50 gridlock. It ties into my comments on Dublin's increasing size. This new road will stretch from Drogheda to Navan and to Naas because experts inform us that the M50 is not the answer.

There will be inevitable complaints about massive spending in the east. Senator Bannon is correct that we should look at the BMW now and identify areas in which money must be spent. I covered the issue of rail comprehensively but there is more to it. Progress is being made on the bypass of Loughrea and other routes are being examined. I wish this could be carried out more quickly but there are many processes to go through.

There are matters regarding providing health and educational services in hub towns. I quote Mr. Hogan's November 2002 article in the Irish Independent again when he said: "It is crucial to provide the roads, hospitals, universities, industries, government departments, houses, major rail links and good culture and recreational facilities to the new alternative cities." Now that the spatial strategy is in place we have gateways and hub towns. We must ensure these are good places in which to live as mentioned by the Minister in his introduction.

I was delighted that Tuam was designated as a hub town. The Minister knows this area very well. Tuam was rocked by the closure of the sugar factory in the 1980s and the general air of gloom and doom at the time but is beginning to pick itself up. However, I was disappointed that as a hub town it was not considered for decentralisation. Ballinasloe, which was not a hub town, got the National Roads Authority while Loughrea, a smaller town, has benefitted from decentralisation of the railway commission.

It is important to look at other issues relevant to Tuam. Regarding the health services, for example, Tuam had a hospital run by the Bon Secours Order and I hope a community hospital will be established there. Other issues include education and the amalgamation of the two secondary boys' schools and the two secondary girls' schools is welcome. Being a hub town, Tuam should get priority for such developments and I hope it will.

I welcome what Deputy Cullen, the former Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, said regarding planning guidelines. Many Members and public representatives in the west talked about this matter for many years and pointed out, for example, that people with roots in rural communities and links to them should be considered for planning permission. The Minister has gone one step further. I welcome the comments which he made on his appointment regarding the need to help immigrants with regard to planning.

I am delighted that the guidelines brought in by the previous Minister, with possibly more to come from the current Minister in terms of regional strategy, will be the basis of good planning practice in our local authorities. No one wants a free-for-all. We are looking for good planning practice. The guidelines with regard to areas of conservation, special protection and national heritage are not meant to operate as some kind of inflexible constraint on housing development because such development can be done in a tasteful manner. In heritage towns such as Athenry and Gort in County Galway, good planning has resulted in good housing schemes.

The Minister referred to the role of local authorities. Frustrations can arise in this area with regard to issues we raise with the Minister. I will give one example. I know the Minister is familiar with Milltown, the tidiest town in County Galway for the past few years. The town is on the N17 and has been seeking a sewerage scheme to allow for greater town development. I know the scheme is due to start this year but in recent days I have seen documentation from the Department to the effect that not all the particulars have been received from the local authority. I regret that and I ask the Minister and his Department to resolve the matter with the local authority and put the scheme in place. The tender should have gone out before now and the scheme is due to start this year as part of the 2004-06 development.

These are just some of the issues. In his speech, the Minister went on a bit of a tour of the country and highlighted good developments. I would like him to look at certain issues in the western region. I have concentrated mostly on railways but other issues include planning, housing, education and health. They are not all his concern but some are. They should be developed, and the funding must be there so that as the Minister rightly said, the areas become better places in which to live, with a better quality of life and a better spread of job opportunities equal to that in other parts of the country.