I compliment the Minister on coming to the House so quickly after his visit here last week. I particularly compliment him on his speech, to some aspects of which I wish to refer. On the greater Dublin area, he said Iarnród Éireann should be aiming at a "turn up and go" attitude. I would be pleased to see that happen as that is what is needed. When one considers the awesome figures about to be spent on rail, according to the report, one will have to ensure that not only will we pour money into the system but also that it will be reformed.
Senator O'Meara gave anecdotal evidence of her experience of using Irish Rail. The practice which has developed on the Great Northern Line since 1962 whereby train drivers leave a train at Connolly Station and drive another back leaving another driver to take the train to Pearse Street Station or on to Arklow will have to stop. We have been fed a diet by Irish Rail for the past ten years that there is a capacity constraint at Connolly Station. This issue is not addressed fully but skirted around in the report. I want existing capacity utilised before we start pouring millions of euro – it is questionable whether we have the necessary resources – into the system.
Platforms 5, 6, and 7 in Connolly Station are used as through platforms for trains travelling North to South and for the DART. A train from Drogheda arrives at the station at 4.45 p.m. and stops on a through platform for three quarters of an hour before another driver boards the train at 5.30 p.m. to take it on to Arklow. A train from Rosslare arrives at the station at 6 p.m. and stops at platform 5 until 6.30 p.m. Irish Rail has told us there is a capacity constraint in the station, yet 33% of its platforms are not being utilised. This can be compared to Dublin Bus parking a bus on O'Connell Street outside Clery's and saying there is a problem on O'Connell Street. It is an operational difficulty and I am delighted the Minister is present to here me say it. He has to examine the operational difficulties and management practices in place since 1962. I have spoken to Irish Rail on the subject. However, it does not consider it as an issue because this has been the custom and practice on the Great Northern Line since 1962.
I do not believe we will see the implementation of an integrated ticketing system based on my experience of booking a ticket by plastic card with Irish Rail. If we are to develop an integrated ticketing system as the Minister, other Members of the House and I would wish, the existing system will have to be addressed. If one wants to book a train ticket in advance by credit card, one telephones Heuston Station but the staff will not take the details over the telephone. One must fax them to Heuston Station where a staff member then faxes them to the offices in Abbey Street where the paperwork is done. They are then communicated to Heuston Station via telephone and a staff member in the station faxes the customer details of the reference number. One then collects one's ticket at the station. I had this experience, except that when my children went to collect their tickets they were not there. They were told to go to the back of the queue and buy more tickets. When I rang the station the following Monday morning, a staff member asked me what the trouble was given that my credit card had not even been debited and, therefore, what was I complaining about.
In an era when Ryanair and Aer Lingus can sell air tickets to Europe and elsewhere on the Internet, why can Irish Rail not sell its customers a train ticket to go even as far as Naas or Newbridge? These are the difficulties we have to address if millions or billions of euro are to be spent on the rail system. I would like the Minister to examine this matter.
The Minister referred to Dublin and the possibility of introducing new lines. To my knowledge, there has not been an increase in the population in the northern direction of the DART line since 1991. However, there has been a 40% increase in the population along the western line in the direction of Maynooth, Kilcock and Kildare since 1991. That is the direction in which resources must be spent. It is in Dublin that investment in housing and industrial development has been taking place for the past ten years.
We must bring into the equation Irish Rail's under-utilised capacity. I refer, in particular, to the tunnel running under the Phoenix Park. We are aware of the cost of building tunnels. A joint committee discussed the possibility of building a metro in Dublin. We have a tunnel with signals that is not being utilised. If we were to build such a tunnel, having regard to acquisition and legal costs, public representation and oral hearings, it would not happen for five or ten years and then at great cost.
We also have an area known as the Liffey junction in Cabra, which could have five platforms at the one level and which is completely under-utilised. It is the area where the Phoenix Park tunnel emerges. We have lines going to the docks, including Spencer Dock, which have been under-utilised for the past ten to 20 years. Irish Rail must examine its existing capacity and apply its management expertise to utilising it.
In the past five years we have spent more than €1 billion on public investment in our rail network under the former Minister, Senator O'Rourke. We have been told today in the strategic rail review that we will have to spend another €10 billion in that regard, which I am sure people will find staggering. We are aware that this type of money is not available. While such development is planned over a 20 year period, the country cannot wait such a period for a solution to the problem. We will have to decide our priorities. If we are to invest this type of money in our rail network and at the same time seek to invest in a metro for Dublin, we will have to examine how such a system can be supplied. We will have to seriously question the RPA figures and how it can come up with a figure of €5 billion for the line to Dublin Airport when a similar proposal in Madrid has been costed at a fraction of this figure. In Madrid more than 100 km of metro have been built in recent years. Using the Madrid model figures, we could have a Luas line all the way to Dingle. In this light, there is something wrong with the figures of the Rail Procurement Agency. We must examine the manner in which we carry out such projects and how Europeans carry them out.
One cannot question the Madrid model. The project was completed in the past five to ten years, not decades ago. Given that Ireland and Spain are in the euro zone and work with the same currency, there must be some other reason for the costs given to the Minister. I am delighted those involved in Madrid are coming to Ireland to speak to the Minister and his Government colleagues because we will then be able to compare and contrast.
The RPA estimates that the metro for Dublin would cost €10 billion –€13 billion if the extension mentioned in the strategic report was included. We know this type of money is not available. We will have to decide where our priorities lie, which might mean examining the feasibility of those lines beside which large populations do not reside and investing resources in population growth areas instead. With this in mind, the Minister will have to examine how Dublin is growing. I was delighted to hear him say that county councils would have to examine land use, by which I presume he means rezoning, and that, if railways were to be built, they would have to serve proper populations.
This has happened in Dublin 15, the Clonee area in west Dublin, out as far as Dunshaughlin and Kilcock. These are the areas for which I appeal to the Minister to bring forward proposals and for which the rail system has only been upgraded marginally in the past ten years by a twin track from Clonsilla to Maynooth. They need to be seriously examined with a view to removing traffic from roads. It is not sustainable for new communities to be established in west Dublin, on the fringes of the city where people have bought houses at exorbitant prices without a proper transport system being put in place.
I believe in the rail network as the Minister does. I was delighted to hear his speech. I favour his proposals for the break-up of CIE. We will need to see a "turn up and go" attitude implemented in the organisation if the Minister is to give it the amount of money in question. Otherwise, we will be back in this House in five or ten years' time equating the Department of Transport to the Department of Health and Children in that we will have poured millions into it and received nothing in return. Value for money and reform must be the Minister's by-words. I wish him well.