Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. The Minister of State knows I have enormous respect for her work but I am rather worried that she is the one who is in here answering a question on transport. We fear and already suspect that the answer may contain the same level of obfuscation to which our colleague referred.

We are talking about the east coast railway that runs from Dublin to Rosslare and which runs through the Minister for Transport's constituency. As part of the east coast railway infrastructure protection project scheme review that was carried out by Irish Rail because of the fears of damage caused by coastal erosion and climate change to that particular track, it is now estimated that infrastructure works to simply keep the track open and survive will cost up to €230 million. This is something that has not just been signalled in the short term; this has been raised on a regular basis over the long term.

If we are to look at shifting significant numbers of people into using rail transport, particularly from counties Wexford and Wicklow, then we must ensure that we have a reliable rail service. We already know that the Rosslare rail service is not a priority for Irish Rail or the Minister because we are not getting the additional carriages that are being rolled out on the system. If we do not have the infrastructure, however, we will not have a train track on which even the old trains will be able to run. This report was carried out this summer. We need to know, to be able to give assurances to commuters, that the rail line will continue in the long term and yet we have not heard from the Minister for Transport whether that level of investment will be made available.