Éamon Ó Cuív: Calls for big-picture rail review for the West

As you can see, Minister, this question has been down to you for a long time because oral questions were suspended, so I know the reports are published, but it would be very, very important now that you give good news regarding the connectivity of Mayo, the major towns of Mayo to Galway, and I would just like to say I'm delighted that funding has been provided by your colleague, Deputy O'Brien, for the passing loop in Northern Moor, because this now really opened it up to open the line down to County Mayo. Thank you very much Deputy, you're right, since the question was asked we have published the report, and also published the original EY report, but also published the second report, the Jasper's Review, and those two reports provided critical answers to some of the questions that have been asked about the Western Rail Corridor, but if I can widen it out to say that the further review we're going to be doing, the more national rail review, I think it's needed because I think in the questions we asked to date wasn't taking in a sufficient wide vision as to the network effects or the benefits of filling in gaps in our network or using existing underutilised assets, which is one of the purposes I see of the rail review. In that regard, I see the potential connection from Athenry to Clare Morris, not just of significance or relevance for the likes of Toome or Clare Morris or Athenry or Galway, but actually, as you indicate, part of a wider strategic assessment of the entire Western Rail Corridor, and my, from my perspective, the Western Rail Corridor in effect starts even right down in the likes of Waterford, and it runs right the way through from there to Limerick, Limer Junction, through to Clare, up to Galway and up to Mayo. It is in a sense having that connection right along the West Coast and down to our southern ports is the, one of the potential long-term uses of rail. It's interesting, we have an informal European Transport Council meeting in the coming weeks, next week I think it is, and the key issue on the agenda is how we revitalise rail, how we revitalise rail freight and rail commuting by rail and long distance transport needs being met by rail. And I think what I'm looking to do is looking for, in this wider strategic review, to really think big and think broad 10, 20, 30 years down the line, in terms of how that sort of connection points section between Athenry and Clare Mars might have network impacts right along the rail network, that would justify it in a way that the Jaspers or the Ewa report did not. Thank you Minister. Minister, as I said, I welcome the passing loop into Galway. Now, what I'd also expect is that you would proceed with the railway line into fines. I have to say, I think it's a great pity that the railway line connecting Waterford to Wexford, to Rosslayer, was recently closed. Because with the new European direct routes, that would also be a vital link. But you're dead right Minister, it's all about networks. It's about a network. We don't have a railway network in this country. We have a radio network out of Dublin. And that is essentially the way the railway line is looked at by the powers that be, particularly those centred in Dublin. And my question to you is, while I welcome the review, can you tell me how long is going to be wasted on this review, going round on the same old thing, when the system doesn't want to give the West of Ireland anything? Well, I consider myself part of the system, and we're looking at system change as what we need to address the climate crisis that we face. And part of the system change is in transport. To go back to the earlier question, how do we go from 12 million tonnes of carbon released a year down to six? Well, one of the ways we do is change the entire transport system towards sustainable mode. And included in that, in my mind, or the key direction in that, is the national planning framework. Because that is the right strategic systemic change we need. And it does talk about balanced regional development, compact development and decarbonisation development. And in that, the transport system helping in that, I believe we will, and the system will, see the introduction of, or the reintroduction of rail services to Foynes, of the Foynes line to the port, but also to provide the potential for stations, in the likes of Adair, Patrick's Well, or other, Dordoyle, Crescent, and other locations en route. And I would agree with you, I think the network effect here has to look at how we start to reconnect towns, particularly to cities, using the rail network, and that town centre's first policy as part of the national planning framework, and government policy to back that up. So, the rail review is not just the system kicking... Thank you, Minister. I know there are a lot of TDs waiting for questions, and we're going to run out of time, so I'm really trying to keep to time. I have to agree with you. Minister, I'm glad you're going to reopen to fines for passengers and for freight. But it is absolutely ridiculous to even contemplate that you could do that, particularly for freight, without connecting Ballina, for example, and Westport into fines. So you actually have the port and you don't have the connecting railway lines. And then we talk about decarbonisation. And though they take an awful lot of study to do that, but you didn't answer the question, how long is this rail review going to go on? Because there's a great trick in departments. Tell the Minister we'll do a review. Make sure that goes on and on forever, and that the Minister's gone before he makes any decision. So, Minister, how long will this rail review take? Minister. I would expect it to take a number of months. It will take a number of months. It was initiated with the view to looking at, as you suggested, the kind of everything, all roads, all rail leads to Dublin. It was initially looking at, in a sense, high-speed rail connectivity between Dublin, Cork, and Belfast. But we've extended it. We first started looking to see, well, why would we not look at extending it to Derry, R and Limerick, and the conclusion of the Western Rail corridor analysis was that we needed to actually go wider, and to look at particularly the network effects, and whether there are underutilised lines that we could return into service, whether we could reverse the dramatic decline in rail freight that's occurred over the last 20, 30, 40 years. And the timeline for that, or this will be done at the same time we're looking at a review of the National Development Plan. The rail review will come after that. But this is part of a government where we have deliberately set ourselves in the course that we will reverse the traditional spending ratios, where it will be two to one in favour of public transport, rail based systems mainly, over road, because I do believe that is the correct strategic development for the West, as well as for the rest of the country.