Senator John McGahon- speech from 4 Jul 2023

Thank you very much, Lasky, Herlock. Leader, a number of weeks ago I just raised the issue of train delays, particularly on the enterprise between the Dock and Belfast, and when I spoke to you about that, I raised the concept of 21 individual delays over a 13-day period. So, in a bit of research about what happens on the continent about this, I actually discovered that the Danish system, in terms of train delays and the guarantees, a travel guarantee and the money that they give back to customers, is actually really effective. So, in Denmark, if your train is later by 30 minutes, you'll get a 25% discount on the value of your ticket. If it's 60 minutes late, it's 50%. If it's 90 minutes late, it's 75%. And if it's 120 minutes late, you get a full value of your ticket back. In Ireland, the comparison is one hour, you will get a certain amount of travel vouchers. If it's one to two hours, it's 50% of travel vouchers. And if it's two to three hours, it's 100% in travel vouchers. So, the difference there is vast. Now, I accept that Scandinavian and European continental countries have had more of a train culture, may have better, you know, it's more common on the continent in terms of a train culture. It hasn't been in Ireland, but we're trying to get more people towards that now, and we're trying to get more people out of their cars. And I think one of the barriers towards getting on the train is that, and I see it every day with Dundalk and where I come from, people now aren't getting trains because they can't get guaranteed to get into work on time, or they're getting very earlier trains to try and get them in ahead of work an hour, an hour and a half. So, I think if we put a bit of accountability on Irish Rail, that there would be financial penalties and financial reward for consumers if their train is delayed, I think that would go a long way towards encouraging more people onto trains, where they know that if they are going to be exceptionally delayed, there's at least value for money back with their train ticket. The same thing is, if I pay a train ticket for, you know, a 28 quid return to get from Dundalk to Dublin, but I'm standing the whole way, or I'm sitting down the whole way, that doesn't make sense either. So, this is something come autumn I would like to bring back up in the House again and see if we can move it forward.