Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State. His being here again is a reflection of the interest we have in rail in the west. He knows this well himself. For once, I am not going to be talking about the western rail corridor. I will refer to it only at the very end.

I have a picture to hand to show the significant rail gaps referred to in the all-Ireland rail review. The document recognises there are significant gaps in rail network coverage. There was never a truer word. Nothing grabs attention like a map. A picture paints a thousand words. From it, we can see the complete lack of provision in the north west. It is so obvious from the presence of all the Senators from the west how much they are interested in and need rail. My parents are both from Cork. If they want to see me, they have to travel to Dublin, get the train from Heuston to Connolly and then go across to Sligo. We have an interest in rail. Build it and they will come. I will get to that concept in a second but first I want to describe what we feel in the north west.

I compliment Dr. John Bradley of West on Track and his family. Dr. Bradley has worked so hard on this. The Minister of State is an advocate of his work. Dr. Bradley’s reports were dismissed but he has a huge legacy. The extension from Athenry to Claremorris is included in the plans, but would it not be brilliant if, before the next election, the line from Claremorris to Collooney were included, as Senator Mullen said?

Donegal, north Leitrim, north Sligo and areas of the North of Ireland are completely devoid of rail. North of Sligo and east of it, as far as the proposed line, there is a vast rail wilderness. There is a lack of hope if you look at Donegal, Cavan, north Sligo and north Leitrim. Recently, I visited the homestead of one of our heroes of the 1916 Rising, Seán Mac Diarmada, in Kiltyclogher.While Kiltyclogher feels remote today, the tour guide when we were there, who was wonderful, made the point that in 1915 Mac Diarmada made his way to Dublin from the local Glenfarne station, which was part of the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway. Glenfarne and Kiltyclogher did not feel remote in 1916. They were very much a central part of a united Ireland with a functioning rail network. The title of the all-island rail review makes clear that the Border does not make sense in terms of rail infrastructure and the absence of railways makes our area of the nation more remote.

The attention shown in the plan to improving the cross-Border offering in the east, with the Belfast-Dublin line, is only right and demonstrates the importance of rail in our network with our neighbours. In this spirit, I welcome the long-term reinstatement of a spur from Letterkenny to Derry as well as Portadown to Mullingar. However, the lack of attention, the absence of railway and the lack of ambition to build railway infrastructure is symptomatic of the neglect shown to the north west as a region as a whole.

In terms of building capacity on the existing infrastructure between Sligo and Dublin - I use this train as I get it up every Tuesday and back every Thursday - the frequency, the length of the journey time and the capacity all need to be improved. I love the train. It is so comfortable. The Wi-Fi is really good on it. The plugs are really good on it. We have a lot of space. They are wonderful trains but we need more. We need more train lines and I suppose we need the catering cart - I will get to that in a second as well. We welcome the new carriages which came in last year and we are looking forward to receiving second-hand carriages when new ones come in on the east coast.

To move pastures from road to rail, travel needs to be quicker and more efficient. I can see in the railway review, because I spent a lot of time looking at it, that we have, on pages 103 to 105, a list of short-term, medium-term and long-term targets which set out potential projects which could be delivered by 2030, 2040 and 2050. The short-term targets in the review include introducing hourly services between Dublin and Belfast, Cork and Limerick, and Galway and Waterford. In terms of frequency, Sligo is relegated to an ambition of a two-hourly service. That is not a great level of ambition considering that the timetable is nearly two hours at present. It also directly contradicts exchanges that I have had with senior members of Irish Rail who have told me explicitly on two occasions that they are targeting a move to an hourly service within the next two years. I would like to know if the Minister of State could clarify that. Is there going to be a move to an hourly service?

A more urgent immediate ambition, and one which has been proven will work thanks to the great work of an engineering graduate of ATU Sligo - it is lucky that I am on the transport committee - is the delivery of an early morning commuter train from Longford to Sligo and possibly an evening return train. This would benefit students, workers, tourists and people attending medical appointments. No doubt some of my colleagues will probably raise this as well. I was reassured yesterday to hear on RTÉ radio Barry Kenny of Irish Rail say that he hoped in the relatively short term to be delivering this and that it does not want all the commuting to be focused on Dublin. To ensure this, a suggestion for an easy initiative to improve customer experience is the reintroduction of the catering cart. It is an easy win. It is back on the Dublin-Cork train. It is back on the Dublin-Belfast train. I hope we will get it. It is something that could be delivered quite easily.

To go on about the spine of Connacht, it is fantastic that the Athenry-Claremorris section has been committed to but, as Senators Mullen, Duffy and Collins said, we need it in the west of Ireland. We need this connectivity. The Minister of State will remember the wonderful song, "The West's Awake". Let the west be reawakened. Deputy Canney knows it because he lives there and he is a great advocate for it. Could we see an addendum put into the all-island rail review to review dealing exclusively with and positively discriminating in terms of the west and north west and that section of the railway? It is in public ownership and that section of the railway should be included in the review.