In the wider 30-year or 40-year climate context, where will we go? Do we want large-scale manufacturing? I believe we do. We are good at it and have done it before, for example, in Asahi and Ballina. Why can we not do the same at Castlebar, Westport, Tuam, Athenry and all the other stations along that line? Tuam used to have an industrial rail freight-based system. We know it has worked in the past.

It makes more sense to focus on that rather than the Tuam commuting route, because a bus route from Tuam into Galway city would provide an equally good service. Rail freight wins the case, in my view, but we need to examine all the options.

The debate on these issues has to be reasoned and there must be an economic argument behind it. As I understand it, Iarnród Éireann has commissioned a study by AECOM to look at the future of rail freight. That will be available at the same time as we publish the JASPERS study and the EY-DKM study on the Claremorris-Athenry link. We must be real about this. At the moment, it is mainly fertiliser and other bulk goods coming into Foynes. We have to look at port strategy, which is connected to the rail issue. We need t…

Developing those two small links would give us a national rail freight service connected to two international deepwater ports. I would go to Europe with that proposal. I would take it to the EU's climate action recovery fund and say that this proposal makes economic sense. This is a region with clean power, clean water, manufacturing expertise and two deep-sea ports that can be connected by rail freight. I do not see why it cannot work.

I have to admit a slight bias in this matter in that my mother grew up in Macroom and I spent my childhood holidays on the banks of the River Sullane visiting my grandparents. As Minister, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in regard to public transport. However, I am not involved in the day-to-day operations of public transport. That is the responsibility of the NTA in conjunction with public transport operators. The NTA has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger …

One of the most significant things in the programme for Government is the towns first idea, which seeks to bring life back into the centres of towns. I am taking Macroom as an example because it is very familiar to me. It is very important that we have good, high-quality and high-frequency public transport services on services such as the Macroom to Cork route. It is also important to integrate local transport services, including Local Link, that have been very successful in Cork. They need to be connected to ensur…

I agree with the Deputy. On Macroom specifically, I understand that plans are afoot and quite far advanced in terms of reviewing the frequency of the Cork-Macroom service. Once there has been a restoration of some normal services after the pandemic, I will be supportive should the National Transport Authority, in consultation with regional transport systems, decide that those plans are now ready for development. That would be a very positive development.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8, 21 and 30 together. I will give a general response to all three questions and I will then specifically address the MetroLink project. I am happy to go into detail on MetroLink, but I should also set out the status of some other major transport projects in the greater Dublin area and the current status of the transport strategy. There are three current mega-projects under development in the greater Dublin area, namely, BusConnects, DART+ and MetroLink. Each of these projects are m…

I agree with the Deputy. We are 20 years late on this project. We started it in the late 1990s when I was on the Dublin transportation advisory committee. At the same time, the Danish city of Copenhagen was looking at a project involving a similar length of line. In the meantime, I believe Copenhagen has built three metro lines while our project is still stuck in planning. We have to get it out of planning and start building. The debate earlier focused on Dublin versus the regions. MetroLink is a critical piece of …

Again, I am in danger of agreeing with the Deputy. I will go back, if I can, to the Copenhagen example and how the Danes made it work. These are very expensive pieces of infrastructure. They are multibillion euro projects. Outside the train station in Copenhagen, there is a very low-cost bicycle park that has thousands of bicycles. The surrounding community, through a ten- or 15-minute cycle, has access to the train service that is easy, reliable, quick, clean and cheap. Such low-cost solutions deliver high-quality…

I assure the Deputy that the Government and the NTA are actively engaged in entering into contractual arrangements for new temporary funding supports with licensed bus operators who are providing necessary public transport services. The NTA and my Department have been engaging directly with commercial bus operators throughout the crisis to help inform policy decisions in relation to the public transport sector as we continue to deal with the impact of Covid-19. I am aware of the very difficult business environment …

I am very glad the Deputy mentioned the school transport service which is a key element in the jigsaw of coach and bus operators. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and I met a wide spectrum of operators across tourism, school transport, PSO services and others. However, primary responsibility for managing the engagement with school bus transport providers lies with the Department of Education and Skills. One of the mechanisms being considered by the Government will hopefully be of benefit to a wide variety of…

I would not rule anything out but I would point to one word in what the Deputy said, which is that these are “private” bus operations. I have myself asked the question as to whether we could look at options such as having two runs. However, to make that work, we would have to get into arrangements with the schools and we do not know if they would be happy to have staggered arrival of pupils or whether that gets in their way. Inexorably, we are brought back to the Department of Education and Skills because we would …

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of public transport in the Bray area, including the issue of light rail. I note, of course, that Bray is set to benefit from investments in BusConnects and DART+, both of which will boost public transport capacity in the area. I am delighted that the final BusConnects network will be published today and that the NTA can move forward with delivery of a much improved network of bus services. The transport strategy for the greater Dublin area is the strategic framework within w…

Any development plan should, to my mind, be conditional on real certainty as to where the public transport is going to go in. We should not be developing any area or putting this into any development plan if we do not have concrete certainty around the development of public transport nodes in those areas. Otherwise, we are confining people to a future of car-based dependency, which will not work, will not serve the community and will not serve the country. The issue about the extension of the line beyond Cherrywood…

I will be engaging with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the local authorities on this issue. While I cannot give a commitment on the fast-tracking of any one project, the planning connection is what I really commit to.

I am as frustrated as anyone with the congestion that grips Galway and that has the potential to choke the city’s social, cultural and economic development. I am acutely aware of the need to implement improvements urgently to the city’s transport network, centred on the hierarchy of pedestrian, cyclist and public transport. While the Deputy will know that I am long aware of these issues, they were reinforced yet again in meetings I had with various representative and interest groups from the city and region since a…

I agree with Deputy Connolly. I had a series of meetings with representatives of the various cities across the country this summer and I was disappointed and felt that Galway was missing out most on the opportunities afforded by investing in active travel, public transport and sustainable solutions. I agree that, if the city authorities believe that waiting for a ring road to solve their problems will make matters better, they are making a fundamental mistake. Real urgency is required in the delivery of public tran…

I share Deputy Doherty's concern for those in difficulty because of Covid-19, not only with regard to mortgage repayments, but a whole range of financial issues. It is a critical issue. If one is facing a particular debt problem, it sharpens and brings into focus a real difficulty. I roll in with the Deputy in saying that those who are in such a position, and who will have to act quickly in advance of 30 September, should, if they intend to make an application, do so in this short interim period. That will not be t…

There are a range of different circumstances depending on the individual circumstances. Some people are now going back to work and payments are starting again. For others who are not going back to work and who are in difficulty, the Government position is clear. Lenders must work with their borrowers and put in place new payment arrangements that are suitable for borrowers who are still experiencing difficulty at the end of a Covid-19 payment break. Lenders are obliged to engage and work with co-operating borrowers…