I wish to draw the attention of the Minister to the reply the Minister for Tourism and Transport gave in the Dáil to a question in 1990 when he said:
I am pleased to confirm that I recently gave approval for investment by CIE of £18 million in new railcars. This investment will enable Iarnród Éireann to improve the range of its suburban commuter rail services in the Dublin and Cork areas and will also facilitate improvements in due course in the Bray-Greystones service.
I want to know if that commitment is still valid, if the Government are committed to an improvement in the Bray and particularly the Greystones service and when the Minister foresees such an improvement? That was a firm commitment given to a member of another party in the Dáil two years ago. There have been no signs that that £18 million commitment has been followed through by the present Administration.
It is appropriate that we are discussing this matter on the Adjournment today, the day after the Dublin Transport Initiative reported. I do not mind whether Greystones is provided with a shuttle or a DART service, but what it needs is a good, modern, up-to-date transport service. What it also needs is speedy action now. The Dublin Transport Initiative recommended quite specifically in the report which was issued yesterday that the DART should be extended to Greystones for good infrastructural reasons. It recommended that this should be done by EC funds. That is a recommendation which, presumably, the Government will take note of and I hope act upon.
What worries me more than anything else is the speed of the action following this report. Obviously, this report which is simply a preliminary recommendation has to go to a steering committee, which has to get Government approval and then the approval of the EC. What we are, unfortunately, talking about is an arduous process which will take far longer than the delay we have already had to put up with in Greystones, where the people have really got a very raw deal on the transport issue.
Greystones has been totally neglected with regard to transport. I raised this matter a year ago in this House and failed to get a commitment. In Greystones there have been public meetings and public marches to Leinster House on the matter. There have been meetings on the issue with the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications, Deputy Geoghegan-Quinn, with spokespeople of all parties and with various other bodies, including Iarnród Éireann.
The pressure is building up. Greystones is a town with a population of 11,000, and a projected population of at least 20,000. The county council is preparing an infrastructure which will facilitate at least 20,000 people, but there appear to be absolutely no transport plans to facilitate these 20,000 or even the 11,000 who are there now. Plans must be made and commitments must be given because the service at the moment is inadequate. The town is growing; it is a commuter town where the majority of the working population travel to and from Dublin every day.
One of the great tragedies of which the Minister will undoubtedly be aware was that the shuttle service, which worked very well for many people in Greystones was withdrawn in November 1990 on what was described by the Minister as a temporary basis. We know that the word "temporary" is very flexible in Government parlance, in terms of its partners, financial commitments and financial projections. A "temporary basis" appears to have extended over two years with no clarification of what that "temporary basis" is. There is, as undoubtedly the Minister knows, a bus service to Greystones but it too is inadequate. In the mornings, people have to wait 40 to 50 minutes for buses which regularly break down on the hill between Greystones and Bray; the buses are overcrowded and pass many would-be passengers on the road between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. That is the extent and the depth of the problem.
The Arklow to Dublin train stops at Greystones at 7.50 a.m. It is very overcrowded and extraordinarily uncomfortable for the commuters — people leave their cars in Bray and catch the DART rather than travel on the existing transport which is extremely uncomfortable and unreliable. That is the only train provided during the morning rush and there is only one train going to Greystones during the evening rush.
Greystones is discriminated again in comparison with towns like Maynooth on the other side of Dublin.
Let me give an example of how completely inadequate the service is and the farcical level to which the neglect of Greystones has sunk. The train from Greystones to Dublin now takes 53 minutes, at that time of day. In 1955, a train, on the same journey, took 35 minutes. With modern technology and speed, with advances in transportation, the train from this town, which is close to Dublin, is taking 20 minutes longer.
The service is totally in adequate, the cost of either restoring a shuttle, which is my personal preference, or introducing the DART, would be £5 million to £6 million. However, I see no movement on behalf of the Government on this issue despite the fact that an independent body has recommended that it is absolutely essential.
The result of the lobbying of the political parties by the people of Greystones resulted in an examination of this issue by the Transport spokesman of the Fine Gael Party at the time, Deputy Yates, who have given a firm and unequivocal commitment that Fine Gael in a future Administration will restore the shuttle to Greystones even if the funds are not there to introduce the DART.
I would like the Minister today to give me an assurance that he recognises the seriousness of this problem, and how Greystones is discriminated against; that he will fulfil the commitment given in the Dáil in 1990 and insist that Iarnród Éireann provide railcars with the £18 million, or he will give a solemn commitment that the recommendations of the DTI in regard to Greystones, which involve introducing adequate transport facilities to solve the problem, will be acted upon immediately.
