I seek clarification from the Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, on proposals within the CIE group for substantial cuts in rail freight services in the south-east and the potential closure of the Limerick-Waterford-Rosslare freight services. If the Minister for Transport presides over these cuts he will deservedly go down in transport history as the Doctor Beeching of the current age and the true successor of people like Todd Andrews who wrongly cut the heart out of the Irish rail system. The latest proposal of Irish Rail follows the announcement of the IFI closure and is a further blow to the region. There will probably be further serious job losses.
Cuts like this make no sense. Rail is an efficient and environmentally friendly way to carry freight. It ought to be expanded and encouraged in order to reduce the pressure on the national roads sys tem. The road network is simply not capable of carrying all the freight generated by industry and services. Even when the full road construction programme has been completed it will not be sensible to overload it with freight. Most EU countries aim to carry 30% of freight by rail. Our record for rail freight is abysmal and getting worse. The rail system is ideal to carry a large component of freight and a balanced transport policy would seek to encourage the expanded use of the rail network for freight as well as passenger use. This is particularly true in the regions. It would be grossly irresponsible to reduce capacity on the railways just as their importance in transport policy is finally being recognised.
The proposals being examined by Irish Rail constitute a grave threat to large areas of the south and south east, particularly Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford. Consider the effect on the beet industry, for example, if Wellington Bridge is lost and beet has to be transported by road to Mallow. There would be about 100 lorries each day on narrow, congested, poor roads rather than transporting beet safely and rapidly by rail. The decision of Irish Rail is extremely short-sighted and I want the Minister to give an assurance that he will not sanction it. The boards of CIE and Irish Rail should take a long-term view and find ways to coax industry and services to use the railways more for the transport of goods within the country and to our ports for export. In other words, Irish Rail should start a marketing campaign to encourage freight to use the railways. A roads-only approach to freight traffic is a potential environmental nightmare, adding significant pressures to a road system which was not designed to carry it and reducing still further any chance of meeting our national targets to reduce carbon emissions.
The Minister is also aware of the very heavy death and injury toll due to road accidents involving HGVs and large transport vehicles. The policy of closing the rail freight network will add to the carnage on the roads. In recent years Irish Rail has cut by 48% the amount of freight carried on its routes. Senior management in the company seem to want to cut it out completely. I am afraid that any further reduction will effectively sound the death-knell for this service. The Minister for Transport must say a definitive "No" to this proposal. If he decides to preside over the closure of the rail freight network in the south and south east we must ask whether passenger services can be far behind. Many of the towns in the region are now experiencing growth due to commuters who work in bigger cities in the region such as Cork, Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny. Any further reduction in the rail service will destroy a potential encouragement to spatial growth, to which the Minister referred earlier, due to the Government's lack of foresight and vision.
