Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 8 Oct 2003

Vol. 572 No. 1

Leaders' Questions.

Mr. Kenny

As this is the last appearance the Taoiseach will make in the House this week, I would invite him to clear up the confusion for thousands of commuters as a result of Iarnród Éireann's decision to close stations at weekends until mid-2004. The Minister for Transport, who is not here, said he was only informed of this decision on Monday night. A spokesman for Iarnród Éireann confirmed this morning that the Minister's Department and office were briefed on a continuous basis about the plans for closure of lines and works to be carried out.

How can the Taoiseach, as leader of the Government, stand over a position where paying customers – up to 100,000 per week – are treated in this disdainful and contemptuous fashion by a major State agency? This morning customers on every DART line were circulated with a full colour glossy brochure, the first information given to customers by the company. How can the Taoiseach stand over this? Is this proper treatment of fare-paying customers?

Was the Minister, Deputy Brennan, excluded, like others, from relevant and vital information about the plans of this company? Will the Taoiseach confirm whether the Government has made a formal request, through the Minister for Transport, to put these works off until after Christmas when lines will not be so busy? The retail sector and customer are being put last by this company.

The Taoiseach

As Deputy Kenny has asked me to try to clear up some of these matters, I will. At the outset, I will repeat briefly what I said yesterday. In the springtime the DART and commuter rail services stated that they were spending €176 million on upgrading the facilities. There were four issues, including the operation of eight carriage DART and commuter trains, accessibility mobility for impaired customers and delivery of 40 new DART carriages. The idea was to achieve an increase in the peak passenger capacity of over 30%. I gave the figures on that yesterday, so there is no need to go over them again.

The work is due to commence on the southern section of the line this weekend and will continue until at least next June. Work will then com mence on the northern line and it will take a similar period to complete. The work is scheduled to avoid affecting customers on busy weekdays when the maximum number uses the DART. Work will commence on Friday nights after the last DART and work will continue around the clock until early Monday morning – in other words, a week's work in one weekend, which is a reasonable plan. The most efficient and value for money option is to close a large chunk of the network at a time as the power has to be shut down to undertake work on the overhead lines.

The question the Deputy asked me to clear up was when did the Minister for Transport get the information on this. I understand the DART company is issuing information to its staff this morning. I have also been told it put up signs over the last few days. It was on the evening of 6 October that the chairman of CIE and Irish Rail arranged to meet the Minister to brief him on the proposed works and to give the time schedule of the works. That is what is at issue. I can confirm that the Minister asked them to put off the work until after the Christmas period. At the Minister's request and after the meeting the other evening, the chairman of CIE looked at the arrangement in Irish Rail for the work on the DART upgrade and he has reported within the last hour that the DART works will be put on hold over the weekends in December – in the run up to Christmas – and that the work will pick up in the valley periods in the new year. I assume the work will start now but the work will not continue in December when it would be most inconvenient to customers and to businesses; they will try to catch up over the Christmas period.

The work is to be welcomed. Quite frankly, the communications strategy could have been a bit better. They said in the springtime that they were going to do this work but, unfortunately, they did not tell the Government, the Department and, most importantly, the customers until the last few days.

Mr. Kenny

This is an astonishing revelation by the Taoiseach that a major semi-State agency did not see fit to inform the Government or the Minister in charge of the Department of its plans to carry out these works in this fashion. This smacks of bad planning and inefficiency.

Yet this document circulated this morning took a degree of planning itself. It carries the logo of the NDP and the EU in respect of the fare-paying customers who are now to be treated in this fashion. It states clearly that work will be done every weekend from 11 October. Irrespective of the formal request made by the Minister on behalf of the Government that these works be put off until the new year, when they would cause less trouble for everybody, this company has effectively given a two-fingered gesture to the Government and the Minister. It treats the fare-paying customer with sheer contempt. It excludes the Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, from vital information which the public should know in their interest.

Despite the concession that the chairman of Iarnród Éireann has made following his meeting and briefing on 6 October, this begs the question as to who is in charge. Is the Government in charge of running the country? Is the Minister for Transport in charge of running his Department? Is Iarnród Éireann entitled to say to the Government that it will not take on board the Government's request in respect of the fare-paying customers? Will the Taoiseach instruct the Minister for Transport to call in the chairman of Iarnród Éireann again to instruct him of the Government's formal wish that these works be put off until the New Year when they will cause less disruption for the fare-paying customer who again is being put at the end of the queue?

I find it contemptible that the first information that the public is given is handed out to them this morning as fare-paying customers on the DART line. It is not good enough.

The Taoiseach

If the resources were not there, this work would not take place. We all want to see the work done because for the fare-paying customer it will give a 30% increase in capacity. We welcome this work as it will take cars off the road and is good, overall, for public transport.

Iarnród Éireann will argue that it made it clear it was going to get on with this work. The difficulty is that it did not tell the Department, the Government or, more importantly, its customers so that alternative arrangements could be made, particularly for those in business. It did not communicate the bus arrangements, though some work has been done and it has been stepped up in the last few days. There will be alternative arrangements. However, from a communications viewpoint, it was not best handled. The Government and the DART line customers want to see the work undertaken.

They will start the work now, as they are scheduled to go. To change the schedule would probably create more difficulties than it is worth. However, in December there is huge use of the DART with Saturdays and Sundays seeing far higher volumes of traffic than at any other time of the year. CIE has, therefore, agreed to the Minister for Transport's suggestion that it will not do any work during the weekends prior to Christmas. This will be made up for in the slack times over the new year period. It will obviously lose a few weekends and the June deadline will go back due to this.

From the communications viewpoint, there is a lesson to be learnt from this. However, we still want to see this work undertaken. It is a considerable investment in the DART line and will bring significant improvement to the service.

Debate adjourned.