John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As an avid rail user in terms of how we get from the west to here, I am sure the Leader will understand why I am raising this issue. The Enterprise is our largest and most frequent train on the Dublin to Belfast corridor. Between 9 May and 21 May, a 13-day period, there were 21 delays to the service. I am sure we can agree that an incidence of 21 delays is somewhat out of the ordinary and is too much. They varied from anywhere between 15 and 20 minutes and up to 54 minutes and 70 minutes.This information was passed on to me by a constituent, who collated it from Irish Rail on Twitter.

I would appreciate a debate with the Minister at some stage to ascertain what we can do to cut down on these delays. I am referring to only one train line, namely, the Enterprise service. I am not including in this commuter trains, which service everywhere from Dublin along the Fingal coast to Drogheda and Dundalk in County Louth. There must be a way we can improve this service for commuters. It is not acceptable that, over a 13-day period, there were 21 substantial delays. The service also does not have enough capacity in terms of carriages. People are paying for tickets and standing the whole way. We must make public transport accessible and attractive if people are to get out of their cars and use it. I would appreciate a debate on how we can improve our rail services, reducing the number of delays in particular.