John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am bringing this issue to the House today for a number of reasons, but the first key reason is that since this Government has come into office, as the Minister of State will know, there has been a very strong shift towards the use of public transport in so many guises and forms. The way we can encourage people onto more public transport is to provide the opportunities for them to use it in the first instance.

How do we do that? Let us look at Dunleer train station in County Louth, for example. Dunleer is the second biggest town in County Louth after Ardee in terms of a rural hinterland. It had a train station that closed in 1981. The other two train stations in County Louth are in the middle of Drogheda and the middle of Dundalk. Unless a person lives in either of those two urban areas, the concept of getting a train is just not open to them. It is physically impossible with traffic and everything else to either get into Drogheda in the morning, because of where the station is centred, or even into Dundalk at the same time.

A year ago, during the county development plan process in County Louth, the National Transport Authority, NTA, poured cold water on the concept of opening a train station in Dunleer. It said it did not have the population. When one takes away the two populations of Dundalk and Drogheda, the population of the mid-Louth area is 25,000 people. However, it is not just that mid-Louth area; one has to take into consideration south Monaghan and the Kells-Slane-Nobber area of County Meath as well. It is a very substantial hinterland. The thing behind this is that, as I said, if we want to get more people off our motorways, out of cars and onto public transport, it is very difficult to do that when we are not providing them with various and a myriad of options.

Where we have seen in Limerick, for example, the reopening of a railway with the Foynes-Limerick line, there is now a real opportunity to consider some of our disused and closed railway stations around the country. Alongside the national rail strategy, which is taking place, there should be a dedicated Government strategy or policy examining the concept of reopening disused railways. I am not talking about reopening disused railways in areas where they would be of no use. For example, in County Louth there was a very famous one that used to go out to Greenore and Omeath. Something such as that would not be feasible. However, Dunleer train station is right on the main Dublin to Belfast line. That whole part of the island of Ireland is part of the economic engine of the island of Ireland.One other issue we have to consider is making sure it is not the case that people from outside the Dublin region are pouring into Dublin to go to work. This has to be able to show that we can provide jobs and economic opportunities in place like counties Louth or Wicklow or even in Newry and further afield in order that those people are then able to commute into our area, and that is not being sucked into a Dublin region. The concept of reopening Dunleer train station should strongly be considered.

I do not agree with the concept that the population is not there to do so. The population is set to grow dramatically by 2024. We want to expand the population of County Louth from 100,000 to 250,000 by 2050. At what stage, therefore, do we start to reopen railway lines? Do we just have to sit and wait for another ten years until the population grows further? If we provide the opportunities to increase public transport and get more people off our roads, reopening railway stations in particular areas such as Dunleer would be a good move. I am keen to hear the Government's views on that.