2025-11-18

86. Deputy Cathy Bennett asked the Minister for Transport the projects identified in the strategic rail review with regard to Monaghan that he intends to progress; and the status of same. [63068/25]

My question relates to the timeline in the strategic rail review for the return of rail transport to County Monaghan. The Minister of State may or may not know that in counties Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal we have no railway network at all. The strategic rail review provides for this and I ask the Minister of State to consider it.

I thank the Deputy for the question. It is important we discuss the all-island rail review, for which I have overall responsibility. I have a passion for rail and think it is important we restore as many of the lines as possible and do as many of the connections we can, especially in the west and north west where rail is lacking, and in the Deputy's constituency. I met some people in Ulster in relation to the connection between Derry and Letterkenny and the line from Portadown through Down. We have the basis for this, namely, the all-island rail strategy. We have identified projects that can be done quickly and that we can get ready for implementation. When we launch our sectoral plan that will show exactly what we are doing. I am delighted the Deputy raised this specific area because sometimes we look at Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway but we need to make sure the west, north west and all around are connected by rail, as they should be, and right up into Northern Ireland, as we are doing on the Dublin to Belfast line. It is important we keep that momentum going and I look forward to working with the Deputy on that over the next four years.

Unfortunately, that concludes oral questions.

I thank the Minister of State.

Very briefly.

It would be very helpful if the Minister of State could do that. I suggest he use the shared island fund as it takes in the North and South. There is a big pot of money there that he could tap into. We in Monaghan and Cavan would like to have a rail network running through Portadown and right up to Donegal. It would be very much appreciated.

That concludes oral questions.

I think I was meant to have the next question. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, to write to me via email with a response as to whether there is a review into concerns about whether Uber coming into the taxi market complies with the Taxi Regulation Act.

I will certainly do that.