Park-and-Ride Facilities
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-19
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Marian Harkin (IND), Sligo-Leitrim

As I noted in my reply, the NTA is progressing park-and-ride sites at Sallins and Kill, which together will provide more than 1,500 additional car parking spaces, as part of its co-ordinated programme of park-and-ride development at strategic locations. In addition to this work, collaborative work is ongoing with Iarnród Éireann to deliver increased parking at existing rail stations nationally. That includes the recently completed works at Kildare. I acknowledge what the Deputy said about that car park not being sufficient to accommodate the number of cars currently seeking to use it. The work also includes ongoing preliminary design work for Athy and Carlow, with works at Newbridge and Hazel being identified as mid-term objectives. If there are lessons to be learned from what happened in Kildare, I hope those lessons will, indeed, be learned. Iarnród Éireann is also updating its national car park strategy, which may identify further locations along the M7 and M9 catchment area. Collectively, these projects will support reduced car dependency, lower congestion and improve public transport accessibility for commuters travelling into the greater Dublin area.
As far as other projects are concerned, the NTA is currently working with TII on the feasibility of bus priority measures for the N7 corridor, which most likely will be in the form of hard-shoulder bus running. Enhanced bus priority would make bus-based trips along the corridor more desirable and would also support the delivery of bus-based park-and-ride schemes. Iarnród Éireann is also looking at delivering increased parking at existing rail stations nationally. I have already mentioned those stations and will not go through them again. I thank the Deputy for raising this issue.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-19