John Carty (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and I congratulate him on his elevation to this position. I have little doubt he will give it the same dedication he gave to his previous portfolio and he will be successful.

I will confine my remarks to what will happen in the west in the next few years. Great progress has been made. The N5 upgrade between Castlebar and the county boundary with Roscommon is complete. The final 14 km section was completed well ahead of schedule and it was opened earlier this year, even though it was not supposed to be completed until the end of the year. We are on the right track to getting other works up and running. Last Monday, Mayo County Council met to discuss the route for a dual carriageway between Ballindine and Galway city. While it is included in the plans for the Atlantic corridor, it will be completed ahead of schedule because the Government has made significant moneys available for the development of roads. A dual carriageway between Ballindine and Galway city will make a major difference to transport in the west because it will link with the N17 between Charlestown and Ballindine, which has been a great success in the past four years.

The other part I would like to mention is the N59 coastal route which is proposed from Sligo via Westport to Galway. This will benefit tourism hugely in that part of the country because everybody knows that it has huge tourism potential. The tourism aspect has been developed over recent years but, unfortunately, the road network has not been that good. I welcome the fact that it has been included in Transport 21 and look forward to its completion.

The western rail corridor is another part of our development. For the past 30 years, no train has run from Claremorris to Ennis or Galway but this has now begun to be put in place. As we speak, work is taking place on the Ennis to Athenry route. This will deliver direct, regular Galway to Limerick services timed to meet commuter needs. It will serve Limerick, Ennis, a new station at Sixmilebridge, Gort, Ardrahan, Craughwell, Oranmore and Athenry and proceed into Galway. The second part of that phase will see the development of the Athenry-Tuam-Claremorris route, which will be of huge benefit to my part of south and east Mayo and people travelling to Galway.

There is also a proposal that it continue on to Collooney in County Sligo and link up with the Sligo-Dublin line. That will take a lot of transport off the road as far as the transport of goods is concerned. I would certainly welcome that because at the present time, our roads are taken up to a considerable degree with the transport of materials that could well be transported by rail.

I compliment the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, on putting money into the reinstatement of fencing and of part of the line from Claremorris to Collooney as well as the cleaning of the line. This money was well spent and has given a new impetus to the development of that part of the track. When it comes to Claremorris, I have little doubt that it will go on to Collooney in a speedy fashion.

There are three trains per day from Westport-Ballina to Dublin, taking in all the stations in Mayo on the way there. It is now proposed that by the end of the year, there will be five trains per day. I congratulate Iarnród Éireann on upgrading that line and putting on new carriages. I travelled on that train twice in recent weeks and it was a comfort to do so compared with what we had before. The new rolling stock is very welcome and its introduction is not before time. This will take a considerable amount of traffic off the road. I would ask Iarnród Éireann to ensure there is an early bird service from Westport-Ballina to Athlone to meet up with the Galway train so that the people of Mayo could be in before 9 a.m.

This Government has invested a substantial sum of money in Knock Airport, which is also part of transport although it is not in Transport 21. The Government allocated €27.1 million for the development of the airport. I see that bringing in more people to the west for tourism. This is why it is important we have good rail and bus transport and good roads in that part of the county.