John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for attending the House. One of the reasons I bring up the concept of high-speed rail is that I have been a rail user for the past seven or eight years, commuting from Dundalk to Dublin. We have various issues with the rail infrastructure in this country. It is good to see a renewed focus from the Government in the programme for Government and in recent statements from the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and indeed the Minister for transport in Northern Ireland, Nichola Mallon, in relation to our all-island economy and a review of our all-island railway tracks.

Dublin to Belfast is about a two hour and ten minute journey, if you are going well. There are about eight direct trains between the two major cities on this island. For comparison, Liverpool to Manchester and Edinburgh to Glasgow are similar distances. They have up to 30 to 40 direct trains per day. What are the Government's plans for high-speed rail? How ambitious are we about introducing high-speed rail on this island? What do we see as some of the pitfalls of it? What lessons can we learn from high-speed rail on the Continent, in China, Japan and Spain? They have faced issues we can use and take into the report that is being launched by the Government. I am keen to know how long the all-island report announced in April by both Ministers will take.

As research and preparation for this Commencement debate, I spent the past day or so reading up on high-speed rail around the world. There are so many benefits. Clearly, there are environmental benefits. High-speed rail is comfortable, safe, flexible and, most important, gets people out of cars. It provides a safer transport alternative. The other issue is economic viability. The concept exists around the world that high-speed rail is a money pit but that is not the case. It has been profitable across the Continent and in Japan, which was the birthplace of high-speed rail in the 1960s. It creates jobs and provides a huge stimulus boost to local economies when it is being built. That is important to bear in mind. Naturally, there are energy savings associated with it.

By way of comparison, China has 26,800 km of high-speed rail, Spain has 3,100 km, Japan, 3,041 km, France, 3,220 km, and Germany, 3,038 km. High-speed rail provides a fast, reliable mode of transport. If we are to be serious about our climate commitments and the targets we have set for 2030 and 2050, high-speed rail has to play a part on this island. For me, that goes from Belfast, Dundalk, Dublin and then on to Cork. I would like an outline from the Minister of State and the Government of our views on high-speed rail, where we see it going and what we hope to achieve with it.