Rail Network
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-19
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Joanne Collins (SF), Agricultural Panel

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, for being here. I know this is not his Department but I was advised that he was going to take this and he should have answers for me. I hope we will get something from this.
I am from County Limerick and I travel in and out of the county. I take the train from Colbert Station to Dublin every week. When I heard there was a rail line going down from Foynes to Limerick, I thought it was a fantastic thing to get for County Limerick. However, it is a freight line that is there at present. I have been told that the hope is that it will be turned into a passenger line. I have it on good authority, off the record from Iarnród Éireann, that this is an "if" not a "when". There is no guarantee that it will ever be a passenger line.
When I heard a temporary station and platform were being put into Adare Station, around the time of the Ryder Cup, I had a few questions. Why is it temporary? Is it possible to make it a permanent structure? My understanding is that Iarnród Éireann sold the train station in Adare just over ten years ago for €200,000 and bought it back last year for €2 million. A sum of €3 million is needed to put in a temporary platform and redo the station, which would result in €5 million of taxpayers' money being spent on something that people feel is only to facilitate those coming in from Limerick Junction to Adare for the Ryder Cup. There will not actually be a service for the people living in the area or anybody further out in west Limerick. The people coming to the Ryder Cup are going to go anyway, regardless of what kind of transport is there. They have their tickets and accommodation booked and they have their tickets for the golf. They are going to come in, whether it is by car or bus. Is the €5 million going into Adare Station and the temporary platform a good use of taxpayers' money? Could it be made permanent? Could the rail line be upgraded for the people of west Limerick to get use out of this, if that kind of money has to be put into that station?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:57+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-19