Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will in a general way try to answer the broader questions that people have asked, which is fair enough and that was the purpose of this debate, specifically on the sports capital which is so topical.

I will start with Senator Mark Daly, on the refurbishment of old carriages, which I mentioned in my opening statement. The NTA and Iarnród Éireann did consider that option but the costs turned out to be three times greater than expected, a cost of almost two thirds of a new carriage with a lifespan of around one third, so it was not value for money. The NTA also looked into buying second-hand stock. That was actively explored but there were concerns about availability, age of fleet, compatibility and cost. Again, it was not considered to be value for money, which the Senator would be concerned about. The 41 carriages were considered to be the best option and that is being pursued.

As I also mentioned, a much bigger expansion under the DART programme is on the way with a minimum of 300 carriages and a maximum of 600. On the sports capital – I am trying to get through this at a rate of one person a minute but it is difficult – the Senator referred specifically to County Leitrim, which is fair enough. Under the 2018 round we moved away from the per capitato demand for the first time. This is a huge step and the people who are not happy with this are the sports clubs in Dublin, for reasons that are quite clear. I am not arguing either case here today because that is a long argument. Last time, under the old system, the Dublin clubs all received pretty full allocations for valid applications but under the new system they do not. There is a good argument for the per capitagrant which they received but we have moved away from that in the direction of clubs outside Dublin and the heavy population areas. Leitrim and other clubs elsewhere will have benefited from that. The overall fund is split by county. Essentially, clubs compete only with others from the same county. Overall I would have thought that even though I am a Dubliner, Dublin people would perceive this as not being so favourable to them as the system was in the past.

Senator Boyhan talked about the number of trains at peak times and that he would like to see incentives for people to travel at different times to reduce the numbers. That is a fairly good idea, or a plausible one. The NTA is the body which decides the ticket prices and it has been considering ways to improve the overall ticketing system, whether by price or technology. Some people would say an attractive system is one that is simple to understand and a proliferation of charges sometimes goes against that. I do not know what the merits of the argument are but I do not decide the prices. It is perfectly appropriate for the Senator to raise the issue here but I do not decide the prices. People expect me to say it should be decided in this House but I do not. That is what the NTA is for but it has considered that. It has increased off-peak trains in order to make it more attractive to people to travel at different times because they will be less crowded. That has had a limited amount of success.

On sports capital, I think Senator Boyhan acknowledged that we have made incredible efforts to make this new system as transparent as possible. That has met with quite a lot of resistance in political circles. I do not think that is any secret. It is to make it quite obvious how these are awarded and that they are not awarded by politicians moving them around or preferring their own clubs one way or another and changing the order. We have a scoring system which is absolutely transparent. Senator Buttimer referred to it, he did not like it particularly or he wanted to improve the scoring system. That is perfectly fair enough. There are problems. I took his point about the Pobal index. It is a reasonable one and should be considered again. We have made the system utterly transparent. Once the officials make a recommendation, the clubs are not moved around geographically in any way. It is done on a scoring system which is perfectly transparent. If there are ways we can make it even more transparent, that is fine. We are open to suggestions. I want to be as far away from it as possible.