Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I want to speak about a subject that is close to my heart and something about which I spoke in this House on a number of occasions. I am referring to rail transport, especially freight services to our ports. I worked in Waterford Port for many years and on any weekend, ten or 12 trains would come in, while two or three trains per day were coming into the port every day during the week. For whatever reason, Iarnród Éireann forgot about rail freight and had no interest in it. The company let the business fade away. It was uncompetitive, even though it had the best infrastructure possible in Waterford Port. It is improving a little bit, but Iarnród Éireann was so uncompetitive that the companies operating in the port got quotes from hauliers which were much cheaper. This probably suited Iarnród Éireann because it could get out of the rail freight business and let people go.

I would have thought that the first priority of a Green Party Minister would be to transfer the amount of road freight onto the railways. The Green Party should have been completely in favour of any subsidy necessary to do that. I thought it would have been pushing this agenda at this stage. It is still not too late. There should be rail links to ports in places like Dublin and Limerick, and it would not take a major amount of money to provide that infrastructure. The will has to be there from the Minister, the Department and Iarnród Éireann, but it does not seem to be there. We need a change of emphasis in this respect. How many times have we seen accidents involving juggernauts going through our cities and towns? How much damage are these trucks doing to our roads? There is a more sensible way of doing things that is much healthier for the environment.

I hope that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government will put some thought into this policy, which is a green policy. Obviously, his intentions do not seem to match the action that we have seen to date.