Nessa Cosgrove (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit agus go n-éirí an t-ádh leis leis an bpost nua.

Cá thosóidh mé leis an public transport in the north west and west? Any of the Seanadóirí who speak here about public transport and general transport infrastructure could draw a line from Galway downwards and see the lack of available public transport systems, but the road infrastructure from the west and north west up is also an issue. We have spoken a lot about opening the western rail corridor and there is a lot of support coming from many different groups for that. The Atlantic Technological University, ATU, has nine campuses between Sligo, Mayo and Donegal. They should be connected and people should be able to go from one campus to the next. Lecturers and other teachers will say that, but people have to go all across the country to get from one to the other. We are encouraging people to get out of their cars, but it is simply not a possibility in the north west. It is in the All-Island Strategic Rail Review that the western rail corridor will be extended from Athenry to Claremorris, but we need to be ambitious about it. All my colleagues in the west of Ireland would say that it is only a tiny bit further to push it on as far as Sligo. I would love to be ambitious again and push it up to Donegal. We call it the spine of Connacht because it will open up the west. The west needs to be woken up. We can alleviate some of the housing crisis in Dublin and some of the infrastructure difficulties in the bigger cities, but we need the infrastructure to match.

The cancer care services were taken away from Sligo and relocated to Galway and Dublin. There are a lot of elderly people who have to go on the cancer bus that goes from Sligo to Galway, which is not fit for purpose, or on the train. I will again raise the state of the catering cart on all trains. It is back on the Cork to Dublin and Dublin to Belfast trains, but there are elderly people travelling on trains where there is no water or cup of tea available. These are basic things that should be provided on a train. I tabled an amendment for that to be included in this motion.

There is ambition in the programme for Government and I am delighted to see the transport police included because there has been some antisocial behaviour. Another area that could be looked at is having a commuter bus from Longford to Sligo. There is only one train. We definitely need a second rail track, and an early morning train service that would allow people to work and attend lectures in Sligo in the morning because we have a serious problem with no student accommodation.