Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 December 2016
278. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on a matter (details supplied) regarding the rail network here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38117/16]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, the National Transport Authority (NTA) is currently running a public consultation on rail in Ireland. It was launched over two weeks ago with the publication of the Rail Review 2016 - which the NTA undertook in conjunction with Iarnród Éireann - together with an NTA consultation document "The Role of Rail in Ireland and Funding its Delivery". Both documents are available on the NTA's website.
The public consultation process will give the public and all interested parties the opportunity to give their views and contribute to the debate on the future of heavy rail in Ireland. The public consultation process will run until 18 January 2017 and the NTA will then prepare a report based on the findings; thereafter I intend to bring this report to Government. No decisions will be made about the heavy rail network before the public consultation process has concluded and been evaluated.
