An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-22
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Liam Quaide (SD), Cork East

Overcrowding on the Midleton-Cork rail line is reaching farcical levels. For a prolonged period, peak-time services have been left operating with just two carriages. This morning, a constituent told me the train was again dangerously overcrowded, with the driver on one journey having to get out to stop commuters boarding at Glounthaune and Little Island. My colleague, Councillor Eamonn Horgan, has been raising this issue over the past year. Irish Rail accepts that peak-time services are overcrowded but says there are no spare carriages available.
The Minister's own figures show Ireland collected €32.9 billion in corporation tax last year. Why is his Department so tight-fisted with the basics while revenues of that scale are coming in? How can we have so little to show for such extraordinary resources that these Cork commuters are still being packed into two-carriage trains just to get to work and college? People in Youghal are in a much worse predicament, with no rail and a shambles of a bus services that would drive you to despair.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-22