Mark Duffy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join in congratulating Senator Kyne on his appointment as Leader of the House. I wish him every success and I look forward to working with him.

I second Senator Ahearn’s request for a debate with the Minister for Transport. There are a whole swathe of issues in the west of Ireland and projects that urgently need investment and delivery. We need to move on from the stage of talk. There has been much inertia on projects, and a lack of delivery on projects. The western rail corridor, which Senator Cosgrove raised, is a critical piece of infrastructure that needs to be delivered for the west of Ireland. There are 33 km of line in public ownership that were used in the past which urgently require investment to connect the western seaboard if we are serious about supporting rural Ireland and the west of Ireland. This is a key priority that must be delivered, and I am sure the Leader is familiar with it. If it is not under the brief of the Minister for Transport, then the junior Minister should be brought to the House in order that we can have a debate on the investment in and delivery of the western rail corridor within the term of this Government. It is ambitious, but also realistic if we put our collective minds to it.

My second point is on an N26 road infrastructure project. It is the gateway to north Mayo and west Sligo, and it has been talked about for 30 years. I encourage a debate on it so we can move from talk to delivery on this project.

The previous Government and the previous Minister for Transport made great efforts in terms of public transport and active travel measures. There was great ambition with active travel. Each town had local transport plans but, unfortunately, that was used as a tool by local engineers to say they would wait for the local transport plan to come. The local transport plans have been created but are not being funded in the ambitious way that they were supposed to be. It is causing itty-bitty little projects to be delivered as opposed to transformative ones. Along with the safe routes to school, we need to make sure that the new local transport plans are not delivered in piecemeal approaches but are transformative so we can actually consider children cycling to school and people safely commuting, walking and cycling, to school, which is not happening at the moment. There has been much talk, but not delivery, on it. We need to see action from that.