I will raise with the Minister of State the issues my constituents are facing in relation to the Limerick to Ballybrophy rail line, which travels through north Tipperary and stops in Birdhill, Nenagh, Cloughjordan and Roscrea. I will begin by acknowledging the North Tipperary Community Rail Partnership, which has highlighted the potential of this line and the issues facing it for many years. I will start with some of the issues facing the line. According to local media, commuters in Nenagh were recently locked out of the railway station because the gate to the station was locked. The gate is locked when the station is not in use. The station is actually rarely in use, which is one of my biggest issues. Those trying to travel that day missed their train and their connections. There are also other issues. No real-time information is provided. Services are cancelled and replaced by buses. Journey times are excessively long and travel times on this regional line are mind-bogglingly inconvenient. It is now 10.30 p.m. on a Tuesday night. Before I came down to the Chamber, I decided to look at what my travel times would be like if I were travelling on the rail line tomorrow. If I wanted to depart Nenagh for Dublin tomorrow, the earliest I could arrive in Dublin, if using local rail, is 9.53 a.m. That is not much use if you are commuting for work. If I wanted to depart Dublin tomorrow to get home to Nenagh, I would have two options. I could choose the 3 p.m. or 6 p.m. service. The 6 p.m. brings me back by the Ballybrophy line but the 3 p.m. brings me from Dublin to Limerick Junction, Limerick Junction to Limerick Colbert and then Limerick Colbert back out the Ballybrophy line. If I wanted to travel from Cloughjordan or Roscrea to Limerick, the earliest I could arrive in Limerick in the morning is 10.08. Again, that is not much use if you are trying to commute for work. If I wanted to depart Limerick, the only time I could leave that is any bit convenient, but not really, is 5.10 in the evening. My other option is to leave at a quarter to six and travel from Limerick to Limerick Junction, Limerick Junction to Ballybrophy and then back out again. I say that at the risk of sounding like one of the D'Unbelievables while I give that example. The programme for Government states many things about public transport, particularly on rail lines. One of those points is a commitment to develop additional track capacity, electrification, increased line speeds and new routes to enhance and develop rail services. We already have the track in place on the Ballybrophy line but we want increased speed times and faster journey travel across north Tipperary, and that is a very reasonable request. We do not need a new route. The route is already there. We need faster travel times, more frequent services, more reliability of services and better infrastructure at our stations. That infrastructure point is important because Nenagh could have a transport hub at Nenagh railway station if we could get the investment. It is key to all of this, to getting the station open when it should be open, getting the physical station open and so that those commuting are not facing that locked gate as we saw previously. On top of that, a transport hub in Nenagh railway station would allow the bus stops to move out of the centre of the town and up to the train station to create a real transport hub for Nenagh. Back in January, Councillor J.P. O'Meara and I met the NTA in its headquarters in Dublin to discuss that transport hub. One of the key points to that is funding. It is a large investment, but Tipperary County Council has the plans, and we deserve that investment in north Tipperary for a key transport hub.

Sentiment score: 0.04

In his answer the Minister of State touched on a number of points I had intended to raise. There are the issues concerning the amount of time it takes to travel the line or the limitations on the speed of trains in the line. The first is level crossings and the second the signalling system, which is not out of the past century but the century before that. Some Members in the House might know but the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis is on this coming Saturday, and it will be 100 years old on 15 May. One hundred years ago, when Countess Markievicz, Eamon de Valera, Seán Lemass and others were planning the foundation of Fianna Fail, the signalling system on the Ballybrophy line was not new technology then, and yet we are still using that technology today. The answer to the issues facing the Ballybrophy line is investment. It is serious investment, but it is long-term investment with a long-term vision for north Tipperary and commuter accessibility to north Tipperary. The argument for many years for people in Birdhill, Nenagh, Roscrea and Cloughjordan was about keeping the line open because there was so much discussion about closing it. That argument is over. It is done. The line is open and it is not going anywhere, but the argument now has to be on future investment and future viability of the line. It is only viable with major investment from the Government. We have to have ambition for our future and ambition for the future of north Tipperary. There is major potential for commuter transport in north Tipperary out of Birdhill, Nenagh, Roscrea and Cloughjordan. Nenagh is already a satellite town of Limerick. Roscrea has huge potential to be that and so much more. Birdhill is already close to Limerick and Cloughjordan, while being a rural village, has major sustainability principles with the eco-village there. However, Irish Rail has said it is going to invest massively over the coming 25 years, with billions going into the rail infrastructure across this country. In north Tipperary, Nenagh, Cloughjordan, Roscrea and Birdhill deserve their fair share of investment in our regional line.

Sentiment score: -0.03