Shane Curley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht a bheith anseo don ábhar thar a bheith tábhachtach seo. When it comes to public transport, I think it is quite clear that the west has been completely left behind for many years. One only has to look at the 2021 decision by the NTA to completely wipe from the map the X20 and 20 Bus Éireann route from Galway to Dublin. The optics of that decision to wipe out the biggest city and the third biggest city from having any public transport provided by the State whatsoever was catastrophic. It did not show the same policy focus as what we are trying to achieve, which is trying to get people onto public transport. It was an awful decision. It took three years to get back any bus from Galway to Loughrea after 6 p.m. This meant it was catastrophic for any students commuting to college, and their parents, at a time when we have such a shortage of housing.

As has been outlined in the briefing document, transport is a key component of economic prosperity in any region. In the west, we have been designated as a region in decline because we have just 71% of the average EU GDP. There are practical steps we can take to address this situation at speed, including even something as simple as bus shelters. If we take Loughrea town, my hometown, as an example, it is very linear, stretching almost 2 km from one end to the other. We have one bus stop in the middle of the town. For anybody with a disability or an elderly person with mobility issues, trying to access their local bus is extremely difficult. There are small steps, like introducing extra bus shelters and bus stops, that could be brought in that would increase the number of people using public transport at a time when we have a massive traffic crisis in Galway city.

On this topic too, we really need to see increased train capacity from Ballinasloe to Loughrea and on to Galway city. Senator Rabbitte and Deputy Dolan have both mentioned this issue at different times. We have seen people in our constituency passing out on dangerously overcrowded train carriages. This issue needs to be addressed urgently. Additionally, regarding the passing loop in Oranmore, it took three years just to get that project through the planning permission phase. We need to speed up our processes massively. We need to see this delivered at speed if we can at all.

I would also welcome a commitment that the Athenry to Claremorris railway line will go to the construction phase as soon as possible. Taking the examples of students going to college or the fact we have the centre of excellence for cancer care in Galway for people in the west and mid-west, it would be greatly beneficial for those people to be able to hop on a train and access the services they need. We have a traffic crisis in Galway city, as I said. We are taking time from people's lives. Day after day, they are spending time sitting in traffic during car journey after car journey and delay after delay when they could be doing so much more. This issue just needs to be addressed.

While we are on this topic, I have seen commentary in the media recently that the rail project will include just Athenry to Claremorris and that is it. We need to finish this project by bringing it to Sligo. We need to be ambitious. We have the two biggest urban centres in all of Connacht in Galway and Sligo and we need to connect them by rail. It is very simple. While we are at it, I ask the Minister of State to be ambitious. I ask him to plan to finish the job and extend the rail line up to Donegal, to Letterkenny and on to Derry, so the entire island will be truly interconnected by rail. This would show real ambition to get people out of cars and into trains so we can reduce carbon emissions across the country. We have a climate crisis and we need to take it seriously. I implore the Minister of State to look at this issue.