Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party)
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Senator Chambers has been unavoidably detained, so I will be taking the Commencement matter on behalf of both of us. Senator Chambers and I raised this issue on the Order of Business and the Leader suggested that we jointly raise a Commencement matter. I am representing both of us. I know the issue is one Senator Chambers feels passionately about for her own county of Mayo. For me, it is about climate, the economy of the north west and joined-up thinking on transport.

I believe, fundamentally, that we can have a rail link and a greenway that goes along the western rail track. I ask the Minister of State to seek to progress phases 2 and 3 of the western rail corridor development. The most recent report on this project, authored by Dr. Bradley, is 200 pages long. I hope the Minister of State has read it. I am sure he has. The report has highlighted many discrepancies and inaccuracies in the EY report on the western rail corridor that was commissioned by the Department. West on Track, a group of volunteers from counties Galway and Mayo, looked at the EY report in February, as the Minister of State might recall. The group found there were 324 numerical errors, 31 typos and 23 errors of fact, some of which were very serious, in the report. The latest report by Dr. Bradley shows that the capital costs of the reopening are 50% lower than those quoted in the EY report.

Will the Minister of State outline what the Department is going do to on this issue and how we can move forward? The development of western rail corridor is not just about how many people are there currently. It is fundamentally about taking a transport-first and town-centre-first approach to planning. The transport needs to be put in place to deliver the planning and development the Government wants. It is very much Green Party policy that if there is rail and that rail is viable, it should be developed first. Otherwise, we will see a continuation of sprawl, which we do not want.

I know the Department is putting funding into the double-tracking of the Athenry to Galway rail link. The western rail corridor would link that double-tracking with Claremorris and the Mayo-Dublin line.From many points of view, therefore, this is important. It is important to the economy because tourists come to Galway. How do we move them up to the north west? We have three regions in this country, and the north west is the only one that is designated as a region in transition economically by the EU. The other two regions are seen as doing very well economically and the north west is not. Many will disagree with how well some of the regions are doing, but this is a European standard. If we want to get the industry and the tourism, we have to put in place the infrastructure. Quite apart from that, this report showed there would be 5.5 million km less in road trips per annum by 2030. Therefore, from a climate point of view, we would see a reduction in the number of cars. We would also see a 2.8 million km per annum reduction in HGV traffic because that line could take a lot of haulage.

I would love the hear what the Minister of State will say about this, how the Department will rectify the errors and the moving forward with phases two and three.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I thank Senators O'Reilly and Chambers for bringing forward this matter. As Senator O'Reilly quite rightly said, this is about town centres, sustainable transport, balanced regional development and tackling climate change. This is an important matter.

As the Senators will be aware, the Minister is a firm believer in the positive potential of increased and expanded sustainable mobility options, whether walking, cycling, bus or rail. The Senators referred to a new report on the western rail corridor, a copy of which I understand the Minister received in the past few days. This report is the third such report published this year on the corridor, although it is the first produced by those campaigning for a reopening of the line between Athenry and Claremorris. As one might reasonably expect from a campaign group, the report is positive about the potential reopening and the benefits it might bring.

As I said, this third report on the western rail corridor was published this year. The first report was the EY report referred to by the Senators. That report was commissioned by Iarnród Éireann and conducted by EY consultants with the assistance of specialist engineering experts. It was commissioned in line with the decision of the previous Government and was a financial and economic appraisal of the potential reopening of phases two and three of the western rail corridor. I understand there have been some criticisms of the EY report, as Senator O'Reilly stated, particularly by those campaigning for a reopening of the western rail corridor, who, in turn, commissioned this most recent report in response. However, there was, in fact, an independent review commissioned by the Department of Transport upon its receipt of the EY report and prior to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, bringing the issue to the Government last December. The second report, known as the JASPERS review, was carried out by the agency known as JASPERS, which was established by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank to assist member states in making investments in European regions such as the west of Ireland. The JASPERS review concluded that the findings of the EY report were not unreasonable. Specifically, as regards the projected cost and demand, the areas of the EY report that have been criticised by this new report, the review found them to be within reasonable ranges, although perhaps based on a design solution and an operational plan that might be considered overly optimistic.

More important than that, however, are the four key observations of the JASPERS review which are fundamental to the future development or otherwise of the western rail corridor and indeed our rail network generally. The JASPERS review noted that the proposed reopening of the western rail corridor did not address any identified social or transport constraint, did not fit with any broader strategic framework for the development of rail in Ireland, did not contribute towards our climate action challenge and would not attract EU funding in its present form. In response to these issues, the Minister has committed to an all-island strategic rail review to examine all aspects of inter-urban and inter-regional rail on the island of Ireland, including lines such as the western rail corridor. The review will also consider where it might be appropriate for high-speed or higher speed rail on the network. In addition, it will examine the role of rail and freight and how best to decarbonise Intercity and inter-regional rail services. It is this strategic rail review that will provide the strategic framework for the development of rail in Ireland, identify the social and transport constraints that rail can help to address, set out how to move towards net-zero railway in the future and ensure that our rail investments are fully aligned with EU policy in this area. I understand the review will commence very shortly, and the Minister looks forward to its completion.

Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. The main issue I have with the EY report, which he has outlined in part, is on what premise it looked at the western rail corridor. Fundamentally, public transport is about a public good, and that is what the reopening of the western rail corridor and the advancement of phases two and three are about. This is about a public good, a social good and a benefit to the planet. We need not necessarily to put aside all economic constraints but we do need to look at transport as being not about how much money we can bring in but about how much of an economic development, quite apart from the line itself, will be brought about by putting in place this rail line. It is not necessarily always about the number of passengers but rather the number of passengers the line will bring in and deliver in the future. It is also, as I said, about how many fewer car journeys we can expect from this line. I look forward to the review. I hope the Minister will engage more on this over the coming months.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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Senator O'Reilly made excellent and valid points about this. I am of the view, as is the Minister, that the strategic rail review will be conducted on an all-island basis, will identify those needs the Senator has spoken about and will be carried out with the support of the Northern Ireland Executive to provide a much more holistic overview of what is required. It will seek to address the shortcomings identified in the JASPERS review and will mean that individual projects put forward later for consideration can be linked back to a strong strategic framework. Importantly, it will also identify how we will move our inter-urban and inter-regional rail services off fossil fuels and towards a decarbonised future, as we must do by 2050. It will also examine the potential role of freight rail, which the Senator mentioned and which is critical. The points made about balanced regional development towards that social gain that will be accrued from having an expanded rail network in Ireland are critical. I am confident that the review being carried out by the Minister will seek and identify those objectives, particularly for the west.