Leonard on Killucan station at Labour conference
Cllr Denis Leonard raised the need for reopening Killucan train station at the Labour Party national conference at the Helix in Dublin last week. He began his address on Saturday March 23, by explaining transport issues locals are experiencing daily. As things stand, Cllr Leonard said, government are “forcing us” to do two-hour commutes to Dublin.
“The majority of people living in Kinnegad and east Mullingar are commuters being forced out to the M4 as we don’t have proper bus cover,” he said. “When I moved to Kinnegad 35 years ago, we had buses to Sligo, Castlebar and Galway – but all of them have now been pulled. Sometimes the routes have been replaced by private operators but Bus Éireann has effectively abandoned large sections of rural Ireland.”
Cllr Leonard said a new project in Dublin shows the government neglect of rural Ireland. “When you look at the MetroLink, a wonderful project that I welcome, it is going to cost about €10,000 for each of the one million people in Dublin that use it.
“Killucan station will cost €300 per person to reopen across the 16,000 of us who live within 10km.”
The Labour councillor, seeking re-election in the local elections on June 7, said the provision of rail lines is worse now than it was a century ago. “What we need is proper, fit for purpose public transport; we had three times the number of rail lines in rural Ireland in 1900 compared to what we have today,” he said.
“They call this progress, but it’s not, and rural Ireland is being left behind – unless we get our act together, we will have rural isolation. The greens want to pull the car parking spaces out of estates all over the midlands – where do we go then? That will leave people isolated and without a public transport option.”
Cllr Leonard concluded his address with a demand that rural Ireland “needs public transport now”, which received huge applause from the conference.
The Kinnegad councillor also raised a motion at the conference, which passed, calling on Labour to request that government review the National Planning Framework, which he said is “killing rural Ireland”.
“This focus on investment and infrastructure development in our cities and large towns where everyone has to live, where there are tens of thousands around you, has had a detrimental effect on town and village centres,” said Cllr Leonard.
“Around the country you pass through once thriving towns and villages that are now deserted of shops, restaurants, pubs, banks garda stations and petrol stations.
“They are replaced by derelict buildings and have been passed up by all forms of public transport – then you reach large towns that are constantly choked by traffic.”
Cllr Leonard said the existing framework is “not fit for purpose”.
“It is city and large town based when more than half of us live in rural Ireland where we need local facilities kept local,” he said.
“Many of the politicians in the current government can’t see beyond Heuston station and It’s about time we [Labour] did.
“Climate change means people working locally in community and enterprise ventures and remote working,” he said.
“It means going to school locally, having a local doctor and local shops and local community centres and facilities – it was the way we were before and what we have now is not progress.”