John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Senator Seán Kyne, for bringing this very important motion before the Seanad. When we look at the concept of public transport, a couple of issues arise. The Ireland of 100 years ago was connected across our entire island with railways. Then, for whatever reason, through whatever the consensus was at the time, we ripped up a lot of those railways and we are now replacing them with greenways. My long-term vision for this country is that we will be so interconnected with greenways that we will be able to go from one end of the country to the other quite safely and along greenways. It is very important in terms of fostering relations between North and South, and fostering the ability for tourism to thrive and prosper in Border regions, to develop the concept of cross-Border infrastructure. Greenways and blueways are very good tourism initiatives that we can use to bring business back to both sides of the Border, which is very important.

We have seen this in my own county of Louth, where we have the north Louth greenway connecting up with the greenway from Newry to Victoria Lock, which has been promoted by Newry, Mourne and Down District Council. That is just one example.

Last week, I was in Derry with the Fine Gael engagement group on Northern Ireland. I have heard Members from the north west, including former Senator Elisha McCallion, speak about this in the House, and I hear my colleague, Deputy Joe McHugh, talking about it as well. It is not a part of the world I am from but I was amazed at the lack of connectivity to the north west. If we have any long-term views in terms of transport and infrastructure, we have to look at connecting the north-west of this country properly and sufficiently to the rest of the island.

To turn to the motion, the lack of alternatives to the private car in rural areas is a real issue. How do we go about that? We have to go about it when we have such an ambitious target to get 1 million people in electric vehicles by 2030. We do that by increasing the charging infrastructure. Let us put aside, for example, the amount of money it costs to get an electrical vehicle and everything else. We are not going to get people into electric vehicles unless they are confident, particularly in rural areas, of having sufficient charging networks and even an abundance of charging networks. If we see substantial Government investment in the charging network, we can do something to help people get out of private cars in rural areas and help to deal with the lack of alternatives in rural areas.

That is my overall view and I am keen to hear the response of the Minister of State.