Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I am going to return again to the matter of the western rail corridor and the other examples of significant underinvestment and neglect relating to the rail network in the west and north west. I will be echoing much of what Senator Duffy said. Most of these matters I have raised in one form or another since I have been in the Seanad and the transport committee. I could be called a trainspotter at this stage. However, the trouble with being a trainspotter in the north west is that you are restricted to one line, from Sligo to Dublin. If you happen to be based at the end of the line, as I am in Sligo town, there is nothing to spot travelling from east to west before 9 o’clock in the morning and from west to east after 7 o’clock in the evening. All joking aside, the reinstatement of the western rail corridor and the expansion of rail services on the Dublin–Sligo line will have a huge and positive impact on the life of those living in the north west.

I wish to address three specific issues, two of which can be addressed immediately and at very little cost in the budget. The third will take a little more time. I recognise that the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Canney, has made encouraging sounds about what is possible. He has been speaking to senior management in Irish Rail, with which I have corresponded, about the catering services withdrawn from all the services on the rail network at the start of the Covid pandemic. We are aware that they have been reintroduced on the Dublin–Belfast and Dublin–Cork lines. We were promised reinstatement on the Sligo–Dublin line by the start of 2025 but that commitment has not been delivered upon. Irish Rail is blaming the NTA for the failure to deliver a sufficient budget, and Irish Rail and the NTA both assert that the catering service is a loss-making service. I do not buy that because a small, independent catering cart has been set up in Dromod, County Leitrim. If an independent person is trying to make money out of it, I do not see how it could be loss-making. Can we just figure this out? It would be a very easy win for the north west.

Another matter that could be fixed very easily concerns the fact that no train arrives into Sligo before 10.15 a.m. on a weekday. This is not good enough. We have a big problem with student accommodation for the wonderful Atlantic Technological University in Sligo. Most people start work between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. but if the train does not arrive until 10 a.m., they will not be able to get it. It also affects people with hospital appointments. It has been suggested that a train could leave Sligo empty at 4 a.m., go to Longford and then come back at 8 a.m. Irish Rail has assured me it is working towards providing an hourly service on the line and I am aware that two additional staff are to be employed in Sligo. Could these be a priority? The ATU, hospitals and general workers in Sligo claim it would be transformative if a train arrived in Sligo at 8 o’clock in the morning.

Let me talk about the western rail corridor, or the spine of Connacht, as we call it, and its reinstatement. The all-Ireland rail review states the line will be extended from Athenry to Claremorris, but can we add the line from Claremorris to Sligo? Senator Duffy and I are like broken records here talking about this. Is there an opportunity to re-examine this? Just because there is a rail review does not mean the thinking is set in stone. Can the extension be reconsidered? It is only 75 km. Since 2019, the north west has been downgraded by the European Commission to a lagging region. If we are really talking about balanced regional development, the line will be transformative. Reinstatement of the western rail corridor, the spine of Connacht, would be a wonderful legacy for the Minister to go out on. Ar aghaidh leis an obair.