Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

I missed the opportunity last week to be associated with the congratulations to Senator Cannon on his elevation and offer my congratulations to him today. I also congratulate Senator Terry Leyden on his elevation to the vice presidency of his political grouping within the Council of Europe last week.

I wish to raise an issue I raised at the beginning of the year, namely, the serious gridlock around the city that impinges on us all. It takes me approximately two and a half to three hours to get here and approximately one and a half hours to come through the last stretch into Dublin. This has serious economic and social consequences for the country. I propose that we have a debate on the re-introduction of a railway network. One of the arguments used against the introduction of a railway is that it would not be used sufficiently to justify the cost economically. However, that it is not available means it will not be used. The same reasoning could have applied to a swimming pool constructed in my local area recently. The argument then was there would not be a throughput to use it, but it is being used when it is available and the same principle applies to railway.

If people could have boarded a train today in Navan and not stayed in the two and a half hours gridlock from Navan to Dublin, they would have happily boarded the train. We should have a railway from Navan to Dublin with park-and-ride facilities at Navan and this should be linked up to Kingswood in my constituency. This should be replicated throughout the country. We should do a feasibility study as a matter of urgency on the introduction of railways and the costings. There is a compelling case to introduce a railway network immediately and, at a minimum, to do a study to establish the reason we are not doing this. If the railway was available it would be used.

I ask the Leader for a debate on the introduction, costings and the prioritisation of railway. The quality of life of the people and the future of the economy and so many other issues depend on this. I ask that this be made a priority issue.