: I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Estimate. In order not to be repetitious I will go immediately for the subject of the Rosslare Harbour to Limerick rail line which has been under discussion for a considerable time. First of all, I welcome the fact that the Minister has agreed to meet the Rosslare Harbour Development Committee to discuss what they consider to be one of the most important assets of the Rosslare port.
Everyone in the House will know that Rosslare Harbour is the biggest passenger port in the country. It has had the greatest growth. In 1970 the number of passengers who entered the port reached 383,000 and that figure had jumped to 477,000 by 1979, and is still increasing. I will not repeat all I had to say on a recent Private Members' Motion but it is ridiculous to see a port of that size not having a rail service for both passengers and freight. I hope CIE, but more particularly the Minister, will take this into account. I am sure CIE have their reasons for considering the closure of the port. Probably one of them is that not enough people are using the passenger train.
I should like to relate an experience I had recently when travelling on the train from Dublin to Wexford. I can only say that it was not a glorious experience. I referred to it publicly as travelling on a cattle wagon because the carriage itself was filthy, and I could not put it more charitably. I offer compliments where they are due, but I cannot do so in this context. Apart from the fact that I regarded the food prices as exorbitant, I felt that if CIE want people to travel on trains they must make the service more attractive. At present few people are attracted to train travel. I know most rural Deputies would travel by train if it was more attractive. I have spoken to many rural Deputies and most of them relate experiences similar to mine. None of us wishes to engage in the hassle of travelling by car to Dublin because of the difficulties involved, particularly when we have attened meetings the night before and therefore are suffering from strain. We would like the easy ride to Dublin by train but due to my recent experiences I have grave doubts if I will ever again travel with CIE unless they can make their train service more attractive and, accordingly, viable. At the moment it is a haphazard service.
On other occasions I said it is essential for the sugar beet industry that the Rosslare to Limerick rail line be continued. The industry provides jobs for about 25,000 people — a statistic provided by the former Taoiseach, Mr. Liam Cosgrave. It is well known that a quarter of the beet acreage is grown by Wexford farmers. There is not a factory in that county, and therefore the beet has to be exported to Tuam or Thurles or Carlow. The viability of those factories depends on the beet being grown in Wexford: if for any reason the farmers of Wexford decided to retire from beet growing the sugar industry would fall and put 25,000 jobs at risk.
I believe that tragic prospect is underestimated by CIE and the Minister for Transport. I was told recently that CIE have no intention of closing the line from Rosslare to Limerick for freight. However, if it is closed for passengers that is the beginning of the end, the thin end of the wedge, for that line. The sugar company and CIE have engaged in big spending in what is known as the sugar depot at Wellington Bridge in County Wexford, at an expenditure of £1½ million. All of the facilities there were built with the railway in mind, and if the railway line were to cease to operate that beet depot would become a white elephant and consequently the sugar industry in County Wexford would become so unattractive that 25,000 acres of beet would no longer be grown in Wexford. If that were to happen it would be the end of the sugar industry.
I ask the Minister to take this matter very seriously and not to be led by CIE officials or the Department into the belief that the line could be closed for passengers but not for freight. That would be the thin end of the wedge, the beginning of the end, for that railway line between Rosslare Harbour and Limerick Junction. It would also be the end of a great industry for many counties, including your own, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
I question the intention of the Minister and CIE in relation to the New Ross-Waterford spur line. New Ross port is very active and growing, with good river facilities, but a port without a railway is not on in this day and age. A port without a railway is less attractive to both importers and exporters. With the limited amount of traffic on that line at present it has proved a great asset to New Ross and to neighbouring Waterford. The road between New Ross and Waterford is anything but attractive by car or by lorry. The railway line can transport about 400 tons of fertiliser in one shift. It would take quite a number of articulated trucks to match this. Indeed it has been claimed by Albatros Fertilisers that that kind of shift could not be accommodated in one night as it can by rail. Therefore, I ask CIE to investigate the activity they are engaged in in relation to the transport of fertilisers.
The New Ross port is growing. It has big export and import facilities with great potential. If the possibility of transporting more is investigated I have no doubt that that short line could become viable too. As with other stations throughout the country it is becoming shabbier by the week. In doing this CIE are allowing them to run down and gradually phasing out the attractiveness of such services. They believe they will get away with it when they propose to close other lines.
We are a great little country for reports. If any ideas are put forward by Deputies or county councillors or whoever, reports must be prepared. That is just a delaying process. The Minister or CIE or other bodies say: "We will prepare a report" and the proposer of the idea believes he has been successful. The report is prepared and presented and then put in the wastepaper basket and seldom if ever is there a reaction. Reports should be forgotten and we should get a little more action. Reports cost a notorious amount of money. We continuously provide finance for reports, while keeping stations and lines open and trying to improve their viability does not seem to matter.
I want to mention the attractiveness of travelling by road or by train or by having freight carried by train or by road. The last speaker touched on this as did many others. When one driver can accommodate 400 tons at a time that should be more viable than the case of a driver who can accommodate at most 30 tons at a time. I do not have to go beyond that. It sometimes surprises and disappoints me to hear CIE say that such transport from town to town is not viable. Commonsense suggests that the figures do not add up. With the congestion on our roads, with the terrible roads we have, with little money being poured into roads — I am talking in particular about county roads and not national primaries or secondaries — and with heavy traffic on them it must be in the interest of CIE and the country to use CIE more to carry freight and passengers.
I was speaking to a Deputy from the Shannon region and he asked me to suggest to the Minister that he should investigate the possibility of providing a railway line to connect Limerick city with Shannon Airport for passenger and freight services. Not being as well aware of the situation there as I should be, I will leave it at that.
I should like to go on to the prospect of the development of Rosslare Harbour apart altogether from the continuation of the railway line there. A document has been prepared by Rosslare Harbour Development Board, which is a voluntary organisation founded in 1933. This board was set up to help to promote the development of Rosslare Harbour. I want to quote a few specific items from that report:
Rosslare Harbour was, and still is, unique in that it is a relatively large port in a rural area (population 1930 — 400 approx.); population 1981 — 1,000 approx.).
The vast majority of the local population is employed in port related activities. The port draws many of its workforce from the hinterland and Wexford town. It has shipping connections with Fishguard, Pembroke, Le Havre, Cherbourg, and Roscoff. Sealink, Irish Continental Line and B & I, the three largest shipping companies operating in Ireland, operate the above services. The Roscoff service is a joint venture between Irish Continental Line and Brittany Ferries. The ships operating from the port are modern multi-purpose vessels. CIE provides the current nationwide connections by rail and bus.
The port is linked to the national road network by the N 25.
I should like to give a brief history of the port:
In 1844 the strategic value of Rosslare's geographical location as the nearest Irish port to Britain and the Continent was first appreciated by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859) who was then Chief Engineer to the Great Western Railway Company of England. It was Brunel who first mooted a ferry service to Wales only 54 miles away.
In 1869 the Rosslare Harbour Commissioners acquired a portion of the fore-shore and seabed near Greenore Point for the purpose of constructing a harbour. On August 17th, 1868, the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway had reached Wexford. A Government loan of £75,000 was procured to build the harbour.
By Act of Parliament of 1894 the Fishguard and Rosslare Railways and Harbours Company was formed. Under this Act the Harbour Commissioners were disbanded and the Waterford and Wexford Railway became vested in the new consortium. In 1895 this company was authorised to operate steam ships between Rosslare and Fishguard. In July 1906 the Rosslare/Fishguard route was officially inaugurated. The occasion marked the fulfilment of Brunel's dream of 62 years earlier.
The port and its ships saw many difficult times, particularly during the world wars. During the first world war Rosslare harbour was a British naval minesweeper base, and during the second world war the St. Patrick and St. David were bombed and sunk.
British Rail (now Sealink) have operated in the port since 1906. In 1968 the French company, Normandy Ferries, with two ships, M.V. "Leopard" and M.V. "Dragon" introduced the first car ferry link between Rosslare and the Continent. In 1971 this service ended. In 1973 the Irish Continental Line, a subsidiary of Irish Shipping Ltd., re-opened the route with the St. Patrick. In 1978 Irish Continental Line purchased a second vessel, the St. Killian, and inaugurated a second route between Rosslare and Cherbourg.
In 1978 C.I.E., the port operators, decided to extend the Harbour accommodation. Seven acres of land were reclaimed, and a new link span loading ramp was constructed. The new pier was completed in 1980, and the cost of the project was almost £5 million.
While I have been throwing bricks at CIE I should like to compliment them on this occasion on their foresight in providing this second ramp which hopefully will be the salvation of Rosslare Harbour and Wexford town to a large degree.
We hope this will be the salvation of Rosslare Harbour and Wexford town. B & I which had long been anxious for a short sea route to Britain commenced operations in May 1980. In June 1981 the Irish Continental Line and Brittany Ferries inaugurated a twice weekly roll-off freight service to Roscoff and to Cherbourg. The estimated replacement capital cost of the shipping lines at Rosslare is a staggering £170 million.
The development board of Rosslare Harbour have met on many occasions and have put forward their own ideas. In November 1980 a sub-committee was formed to find the way forward. This group was formed as a result of the many constraints confronting Rosslare Harbour, which had been accelerated by the rapid growth of the port and many changes of emphasis in the seventies.
The heavy development of the port has outpaced local services. Co-existent in the one centre are an international port and a small Irish village. The village and port are out of joint: thus travellers are not attracted to stay longer and development opportunities are lost. Some of the problems are caused by insufficient berthage, causing serious shipping delays and hardship. I ask the Minister to comment on this matter.
There are very poor onshore facilities. I put down a parliamentary question recently with regard to the customs building at Rosslare Harbour. The Minister said CIE considered it unnecessary at this stage to provide finance to finish the customs buildings. I reject that because I consider a customs' building necessary. As I said earlier, we have our problems in Rosslare and one of them is the importation of drugs. It is my contention that if the customs' buildings were completed this problem would not grow any further and there would be the possibility of eliminating it completely. I ask the Minister to take these points into account and have the buildings completed immediately. There are also environmental problems and the inability to obtain long-term port plans for port operators.
In shipping there is no guarantee of continuity of service. There is also the problem of the vulnerability of the area due to dependence on the shipping companies. In the village itself there are poor streets and roadways, inadequate water supply, lighting and sewerage scheme. I accept that this is the responsibility of Wexford County Council, but I hope that the Department of Transport and the county council will be able to resolve this problem in the short term.
The board on many occasions have put forward their own ideas with regard to Rosslare Harbour. They considered that the services provided by the county council, the Department of Transport, CIE and the shipping companies should be co-ordinated. If this were done progress could be made and we would be in a better position in the next four or five years.
The organisation of ports in Britain and on the Continent was studied as well as the Shannon Development Company and Tramore Fáilte Limited. As a result of these studies, the board considered a State-owned limited liability company vested in the appropriate Minister would be the way forward for Rosslare. The agency would have the function of development and promotion of port-related industry and services. It would do this in co-operation with the IDA, CIE, the shipping companies and Wexford County Council but its main task would be the creation of the master plan, the establishment of objectives, goals and plans, co-ordination, promotion and, where necessary and appropriate, the provision of facilities. The company could be operated by a full-time staff under the supervision of a part-time board of directors appointed by the Minister and including representatives from the interests involved, central government, the local authority, port users and other groups. The details of the terms of reference and funding of the agency would need to be investigated by the relevant Department. I asked the Minister to investigate what I consider a worth-while plan put forward by this development board and to comment on this proposal.
I should like to deal with Rosslare Strand which is adjacent to the harbour. I read in a newspaper recently that coastal erosion was a problem 50 years ago at Rosslare Strand. That problem is much worse today. It is a well-known tourist area and has three great assets. It enjoys a greater degree of sunshine than any part of Ireland, it has the strand and a golf links. There are also the other advantages of being situated in the beautiful county of Wexford which has many miles of beach, historical mounments and so on. However, Rosslare Strand and the golf links are facing major problems with regard to coastal erosion and that erosion has been aggravated in the past two or three years by the creation of the second berth at Rosslare Harbour. There are about 800 people living in the area and at peak times in the summer many hundreds are employed in the tourist industry. Those people fear that the village will disappear if corrective action is not taken immediately.
When the second berth was provided at Rosslare Harbour CIE agreed to provide beach nourishment at the strand but apart from supplying a few lorryloads last summer nothing has been done. I know it is difficult to convince people that there is a danger of a whole village disappearing but that is the case. Unless CIE carry out their responsibilities immediately there will be greater trouble in Rosslare than one could imagine. The latest suggestion is that to keep the channel in order the port of Rosslare would be dredged and the sand pumped onto Rosslare strand. This would be adequate but I doubt when this work will commence. It is absolutely necessary that this work be done immediately. In some instances the erosion has travelled to within 20 feet of an hotel and dwelling house. I feel there is no commitment on the part of the Department of Transport or CIE with regard to this problem. I am afraid for the jobs of those people and, indeed, for their houses. CIE should act seriously on this issue.
Rosslare Golf Club have spent a good deal of money on the protection of the property. I do not want it suggested that I am trying to protect this golf club for the golfers of Wexford, but it is a great tourist attraction. If we lose that attraction, Rosslare Strand will be the worse for it. I ask the Minister for a commitment today as to when the dredging of Rosslare Strand will commence and if he is prepared to continue this operation so that the Rosslare people will not be in dread of their livelihoods and also of their lives.
I recently wrote to the Minister on the subject of fair trade. Our hauliers are finding it very difficult to compete with those from other nations. While I received a reply, it was not entirely satisfactory because the Minister pointed out that hauliers cannot come into this country, pick up a load and travel to another destination within the country, but this is happening. I am asking him to investigate it. Lorries come in with a far smaller oil bill than our hauliers' and much less purchase tax to pay and, having such concessions, can undercut our hauliers. We must protect the jobs of our people. It is the responsibility of the Minister to see that this is done.
I am most anxious to see the Rosslare Harbour-Limerick railway line continue in operation for passenger and freight services. To have a port such as Rosslare without a railway line is absolutely ridiculous. I also want an immediate start to the provision of corrective measures for Rosslare Strand.