Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)

That is on track to get moving. Sometimes these things move slowly when there is a public consultation or whatever. It is not a shovel-ready project, but we will push on with it. In addition, people are looking for additional stops and connection from Loughrea. These are things we can look at. If they make sense, then we are in business. Our biggest success story over the past ten years is public transport. That is why we were talking about doing more and more. We are demanding more and more now. It is great. The challenge for the Government is to get the money to deliver it.

We have a good national development plan, which gave us a good kick-start to get the next five to ten years planned out. When you build a railway line, it will be there for 100, 150 or 200 years. It is that kind of an investment. The amount of maintenance required is not like a road. It is simpler. Irish Rail has Jim Meade as its CEO; he has built a fantastic team. I visited Kent station in Cork, Corbett station in Limerick and Galway. I have other places to go to. When you look at the work they are doing. It is not up in big lights, but I was in Cork station and I thought it would not look out of place in any city in Europe. That is the good news. All they are saying is that is they need more carriages and faster services and that they need them now.

As regards people getting a cup of coffee, in fairness, Irish Rail has tendered the contract out. It stopped during Covid. After that the prices went through the roof. Some of the services are back. It is looking at how it can innovate. We do not need to get breakfast on the train; we are interested here in people getting a cup of coffee on the way onto the train. There are ways we can do it. We are looking at that to see how we can improve the service and the delivery of the service.

Senator Conway mentioned Crusheen and Moyross in Clare. I have seen the plans and the feasibility study for Crusheen. It is an exciting project. That is something we have given the Department to have a look at. Moyross has gone for planning permission.

I am back to Donegal-----