Roscommon-Galway TD Michael Fitzmaurice has called on the new Minister for Transport Shane Ross to ensure that a “proper transport infrastructure plan for the West of Ireland is drawn up” adding that “he will have to bypass a lot of the advice that he is being given by Department of Transport officials at present.”
“In the past week we have seen statistics about the use of rail in the Western region allegedly coming from the Department of Transport. These figures are totally incorrect according to independent analysis that has been done. Once again we see no word about any possible Dunboyne to Dublin route or indeed any other routes in the West and I would like to see the figures on those. Shane Ross will have to cover his ears when some of these Department officials are trying to fill his head with skewed information and I hope he stands up to the mark and does his own investigations on these matters”
“Over the past few years we know that there has been a chronic lack of transport infrastructural developments in the regions. The statistics will tell you that 80% of the staff in the Department of Transport are from the Dublin area. It would follow that people who live in the Dublin area will want to solve the problems that they encounter in their daily lives. I would like these officials to come to the West of Ireland, or indeed why not move the Department to the West altogether. Let these officials try to move around in the West as easily as they can in Dublin and they might then realise the dire need for immediate transport infrastructural projects in the West.”
“I hope that Shane Ross will not listen to the waffle that I have heard from the Department of Transport last week. Incidentally, now that Sean Canny is a Minister for State, I hope that he will move on the things that he has talked about in the recent past as well, as his colleague Shane Ross is now the Minister for Transport” concluded Michael Fitzmaurice.