Rail Network.

Wednesday, 7 July 2004

Ceisteanna (16)

Denis Naughten

Ceist:

37 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Transport the progress to date with regard to the reopening of the western rail corridor; the maximum cost figure his Department will consider as reasonable for State funding to be invested in such a project; the financial evaluation his Department has carried out on the project; if economic and social considerations such as the growth in tourism will be factored into the financing of the project; if the same consideration given to the financing of Luas and other praiseworthy roadwork initiatives in the greater Dublin area will be applied to the evaluation of the western rail corridor, albeit on a much smaller scale; if he will guarantee that the project will not be delayed by the setting up of more review committees; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20587/04]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí ó Béal (7 píosaí cainte)

Mr. Brennan

I visited the western rail corridor, WRC, line and location for a full day recently to see for myself the possibilities. I am anxious to provide the proponents of the western rail corridor with the opportunity to put forward their case as comprehensively as possible and to facilitate a thoroughgoing examination of the proposal. Accordingly, I have recently established an expert working group to carry out a full examination of the WRC proposal and to examine the potential for reopening the line.

The working group held its inaugural meeting in Galway, which I attended and addressed, on 14 June under the chairmanship of Mr. Pat McCann, chief executive of JurysDoyle Hotels. The group comprises county managers, directors of the regional authorities, representatives of city and county development boards, the Western Development Commission, West-on-Track, the inter-county rail committee, Iarnród Éireann, the Railway Procurement Agency, RPA, and the Department of Transport.

The working group will examine and evaluate all aspects of the western rail corridor plan, including its costs and benefits, the travel demand that gives rise to the proposal, how such a project might be funded, where the corridor stands in the context of the findings of the national spatial strategy, the strategic rail review, regional planning guidelines, relevant county and city development and land use plans, the submissions put forward as regards the proposal and the current and proposed road investment programmes. In keeping with the criteria governing cost-benefit analyses, the full economic, social and environmental benefits of the proposal, including tourism, will be taken into account in any evaluation of the WRC by the working group.

Before decisions are made to proceed with the funding of any particular transport project, irrespective of its location, it must be evaluated on the basis of the costs and benefits that are likely to accrue from it. By and large, if the benefits outweigh the costs over the life of the project, it is considered worth proceeding with. Whether it is proceeded with, however, and its timescale for completion depends on the availability of funding and the project's degree of prioritisation vis-à-vis other competing demands for funding from the resources available at any one time. The WRC will be evaluated in the same way and I await the working group’s findings. It is an opportunity for the proponents to demonstrate that this western vision can be turned into reality.

Mr. Naughten

If ever I heard a statement indicating that something was going to be long-fingered and shelved, that must be it. I must take a copy of it for some future date. Will the Minister agree that the expert working group was just a long-fingering initiative to tide the Government over the local elections? Another group will probably be set up prior to the general election. The Minister set out a number of criteria as regards the spatial strategy and the roads programme, but he appears to have left one gaping hole, namely EU proposals regarding the "motorway of the sea", which is critically important for many businesses along the western and south-western seaboards as regards development and access to European markets. Why was that not considered as a critical element? I believe it is and should be taken into consideration as regards the western rail corridor.

Are we going to have another chicken and egg situation where the western rail corridor will not be developed until the population is in place and the corridor itself will not be viable without the population? It is going to be the same again. The investment will not be put in without the population and the population will not be there without the investment.

Mr. Brennan

That is one of the dilemmas facing all major infrastructural projects. Should it be built and wait for the population to arrive or should we have the population in place first and then build it? That dilemma exists regardless of what major project one examines. I have made it clear through the tactical composition of the expert group the way it is to be handled in this case. I have spoken to the county managers and so on at the group's inaugural meeting. They cannot say that they want to reopen the railway line and then, at their country council meetings, zone land away from it or locate their settlement patterns away from the line. If rail lines are to be reopened, then the audit strategies in the hands of local authorities must be complementary. They must indicate in their plans where the populations will be. We cannot have the luxury of the line in one place and the population and facilities in another. There must be land use complementarity because, with that, we can get progress.

I recently announced the reopening of the Midleton railway line at a cost of €90 million. I want to compliment the people of that area and the agencies. They produced approximately €40 million of the money themselves from local industry and investment. It is to their great credit. The Cork county manager, who was instrumental in making that happen, spoke to the western rail corridor expert group at my request on 14 June. I attended the meeting, at which the county manager explained to the group how the project may be pursued. It is a not a question of rushing out to build a few hundred miles of track and keeping one's fingers crossed, but of financing, zoning and an integrated plan, which takes population into account. The whole thing should be brought together in an orderly and phased way.

Mr. Naughten

I find it humorous to hear the Minister talking about land use because there does not seem to be any land use strategy in Dublin. When one travels by train from the west of Ireland to Dublin, one continues to see vast tracts of land that have not been developed until one is almost in the city centre. There has been investment in Dublin despite the fact that there has not been a land use strategy. The Minister is saying that there has to be such a strategy in the west. I agree with the Minister that the population should be focused in the areas in question, but we also need to get a commitment from him that he is prepared to support the project if the thing stacks up. He has not yet made such a commitment.