Rail Network
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-30
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Pa Daly (SF), Kerry

The Minister of State is correct to say that there is a growing use of rail, and we support that, but its development and broadening out are at serious risk with projects like this. The minutes of Irish Rail board meetings are publicly available. The chair of Iarnród Éireann and the project director have expressed serious reservations about the direction and delivery of the project as well as concerns about the contractor's ability to deliver all phases of the project. The failures of this project also raise massive concerns about the contractor's ability to deliver the new €269 million-plus contactless transport ticketing service, the contract for which it also has. We are in a situation where there are electric buses parked up. They are not being used and there are serious concerns about the ability to deliver next generation ticketing. We are lagging far behind the progress that we see in other countries.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-30