Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I join with others in welcoming the Minister of State to the House. I am delighted to have this opportunity to make a few points on this Bill, which I welcome. I am sure that neither the Minister of State nor the Minister, Deputy Cullen, would not mind if I singled out the Leader of the House and former Minister in this area, Senator O'Rourke, for particular mention. At a time when IR£10 million was a great deal of money, she succeeded in securing the equivalent of €650 million to improve the system. I have first-hand knowledge of this in that CIE was closing the Sligo to Dublin line in the early 1990s. Due to major investment in that line overseen by the then Minister, Deputy O'Rourke, and successive Ministers, the line was brought up to the required standard.

I welcome this Bill. While the rail safety record here is good, the UK has not had the same luck in that respect and we could learn from its experience. It is important that we have this comprehensive Bill which provides for the establishment of the commission with an investigative division and an advisory council which will be representative of all the unions, consumers and the disabled. That is to be welcomed. It is good that we have, for want of a better expression, a HACCP system that relates to rail transportation, particularly with all that is planned over the coming years. I welcome the considerable work that has been done on our rail network, the work on the Sligo line being a case in point. That rail line has been replaced and the signalling system has been upgraded to a modern standard to cater for the needs of today.

Most of the previous speakers went into the detail of the Bill, but I will not do that as I do not want to delay the House. I wish to comment briefly on the Transport 21 initiative. I congratulate the Minister of State, the Minister, Deputy Cullen, and the Government on the huge investment to which they have committed over the coming years in our transport infrastructure. I do not want to be negative but I want to point out the needs in my corner of the country, the north west. The people there are delighted that the western rail corridor is set to extend to Claremorris. However, I cannot but express disappointment that the rail corridor will not extend all the way to Collooney. I do not fully understand that reason for that. I know there is a cost consideration, but many years ago wearing a different hat I attended a conference in Limerick when the spatial strategy was at embryonic stage and submissions were being received in respect of it. The phrase commonly uttered at that time was the need for "capacity before demand". If there are gateways to Sligo and Letterkenny and we put in the infrastructure to provide capacity before we have the demand, we would be poised to meet the demand that will come on stream.

Dublin will be under huge pressure in the future with 1 million people coming to live here during the next ten years. We should invest now in the transport infrastructure in areas such as Sligo. There is not a kilometre of motorway north of a line from Dublin to Galway and west of Mullingar, nor are there any plans to build one. There are no radiotherapy services or gas supply in that part of the country. It would be beneficial if the Government could have a little more vision in the context of provision for that area. The people in Sligo, Letterkenny and that part of the country are eager to take their proportion of the number of extra people who will come to live here and thereby relieve the pressure on resources in Dublin. I welcome all the investment in transport in Dublin, in the metro and the Luas; it is fantastic and the Government is to be commended on it. I do not want to be unduly negative and I acknowledge that this initiative is the most historic announcement in terms of transportation infrastructure in the history of the State, but I ask the Minister of State and his colleague the Minister, Deputy Cullen, to use their good offices in Cabinet to try to get across the point across that the north west is open for business and is ready, willing and able to do its bit. I ask the Ministers to try their best to give us that little bit extra we need to perform to our potential.