Railway Safety Bill 2026: Second Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-10-01 ============================================================ Conor Sheehan (LAB), Limerick City The Bill is very technical and I welcome the Minister's clarification that Parts 9 and 10 do not apply to private heritage railways. That is very important. There are a few of them around the country. It is important that onerous regulation is not placed on them. In many cases they are privately run and located on private ground. They are mainly volunteer driven and do an awful lot of fundraising to keep themselves going, and I am glad the Minister has clarified that they will be exempted from this. I also welcome the fact the RAIU is going to be put on a statutory footing. That is very important. We are very lucky in this country that we have, in general, an extremely safe railway system. It is safer than the European average. Nevertheless, we have to be cognisant of the potential for extreme weather and extreme heat. We have seen a number of frightening incidents across the water in the UK, with continuous welded rail bending during the heat. Our temperatures were not that far behind those in the UK this summer and we are going to have more extreme heat. The RAIU, and for Iarnród Éireann as the operator, should make sure they have a proper national plan in case speed restrictions are required. When we are speaking about safety on the railways, it is important to talk about the continual need for investment, particularly in fleet renewal. Iarnród Éireann's fleet is completely maxed out. It will get some carriages back in the short to medium term when the new DART fleet is rolled out but, unfortunately, that has been slightly delayed. After that, there really is nothing else coming. My party colleague Deputy Wall made an important point on this issue. One of the scariest experiences I have had on an overcrowded train was in his area. I got on the train to Newbridge at Grand Canal Dock. This train goes through the Phoenix Park tunnel and is dangerously overcrowded at peak times in the morning and evening. To be honest, certain trains down my way, particularly the Limerick to Galway line between Athenry and Galway and between Limerick and Ennis, are overcrowded. That is really limited by the fact that Iarnród Éireann does not have additional fleet capacity. It is important to note and reflect that when the western rail corridor was reopened, there were pessimists among us who said the line would be a white elephant. It has been extremely successful and it proves the mantra that if you build it, they will come. My city of Limerick really needs the Minister to commit to a feasibility study on the Shannon Airport railway link. I know it is not an immediate, short-term concern but we need a feasibility study because it needs to remain on the table. It is part of the longer term strategy for rail in Limerick and the wider mid-west. We are so lucky in Limerick that none of the railway lines were ripped out. Limerick has the best potential for rail outside of Dublin and that needs to be noted. I am somebody who spends the best part of his time on the Kerry border. A piece of railway infrastructure called the Kerry curve, which runs under Carey's Road in Limerick, links the Foynes line to Limerick Colbert Station and would cost €35 million to reopen. That proposal was submitted to the Department of housing under the housing activation fund. It is a pity the Minister has had to leave because, unfortunately, the project was unsuccessful. It needs to be submitted again and it needs to be funded. We will have the Ryder Cup next year, which I welcome. We will have a temporary railway station in Adare for the Ryder Cup, which will take people from Adare to Limerick Junction but they will not be able to go from Adare to Limerick city. That is very short-sighted. It would cost €35 million to open up the line from the Adare and Foynes direction to Limerick city. The N20 is one of the most congested roads in the country outside of the greater Dublin area. An active, working commuter railway service between Adare and the hinterlands of Limerick would be transformative for the potential for rail in Limerick and the wider mid-west. In tandem with that, we need to make damn sure that when the LDA puts in an application to develop housing around Colbert Station, it will not build over or disturb this alignment. I want to state on the record that this would be detrimental because that alignment needs to be preserved, as do the capacity and the space. We need to see funding forthcoming from the Government for sectoral investment in transport and commuter rail in Limerick and elsewhere in the mid-west. With the benefit of figures such as the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and the Taoiseach, Cork is getting significantly more than Limerick for commuter rail. Cork is effectively getting a DART station. Limerick is getting a double track to Limerick Junction at some stage but nothing is forthcoming in terms of investment in commuter rail. We have a blueprint and plan. We just need the Government to support it. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-10-01/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:01:00+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-10-01