Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I welcome the Minister to the House and congratulate him on his appointment as Minister for Transport. Those who are new here may not be familiar with Private Members' business. This is a Fianna Fáil item and I congratulate their Senators for putting it forward.

None of this is new. This has been rehearsed two or three times in the Seanad and I will share some of that with Members in a moment. Let us forget about all the points where they set out phrases like "agrees to do" and "notes that"; let us get to the real detail. The real detail is in 11 key points the Senators have identified in their asks where they call on the Minister on a number of issues. While there are 11 key asks, I will only talk about three of them.

One is the introduction of transport policing, the next is the full implementation of the recommendations of the all-island strategic rail review, which is very important and the third is to reinstate the western rail corridor. I will start with policing because that is a really important issue. I remind Members on the opposite side of the House in Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and then the Green Party that there was a motion before them in the names of Senators Victor Boyhan, that is, myself, Michael McDowell and Sharon Keogan on 28 October 2021. It simply asked to insert the following and call on the Government to collaborate with an Garda Síochána, the NTA and public transport stakeholders to establish a dedicated transport police unit on the public transport network. That was simple. There was a roll-call vote and it was opposed. Times move on and times change so I want to accept there is a big change of heart. I welcome that.

It is with some regret that I note the Minister has used his ten minutes so he will not even have an opportunity in this Private Members' motion to come back and share some thoughts but we can communicate outside of here. The Minister has spent his time on it. Senator O'Loughlin will have an opportunity but the dedicated ten minutes has now been used.