The Chairperson of the Louth Social Democrats, Niall McCreanor has told Drogheda Life that, as recently as April 2022, he and the joint Leader of the Social Democrat Party, Catherine Murphy TD, were told by Irish Rail that they have no plans to open Dunleer station or for a new station at Drogheda North.
Mr McCreanor was responding to an article on Drogheda Life on Friday February 23 about the latest calls by Labour TD Ged Nash for the Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, TD, to reopen the Dunleer Railway station.
McCreanor told Drogheda Life that he and Deputy Murphy had been campaigning to have the Dunleer station re-opened and last April Deputy Murphy put a parliamentary question to Minister Ryan asking him to engage with Irish Rail and the NTA with a view to reopening Dunleer railway station to enhance public transport options in the area.
Minister Ryan passed the question to the Chief Executive of Iarnród Éireann, Jim Meade who, in April last year, said that there are “no plans that we are aware of” to reopen the Dunleer station nor for that matter, to open a station at Drogheda North.
Mr. Meade did say that Iarnród Éireann is willing to engage with any parties proposing such projects and will ensure that no action is undertaken which would preclude any future reopening of the station.
He also pointed out that there are strict Government enforced conditions in place surrounding the release of funds for capital infrastructure projects which must be adhered to by all agencies wishing to draw down public funds.
“In general, therefore before Iarnród Éireann can receive public funding to proceed with any rail infrastructure scheme the following conditions must be met;
- the proposal must be fully supported by relevant transport strategy & planning policy (National Transport Authority/Department of Transport/An Bord Pleanála approval as required)
- the proposal must have a robust Business Case in line with current Government Public Spending Code & sector specific Common Appraisal Guidance for transport related projects (available from the Department of Transport website)
- full demand assessment of each scheme using the National Transport Authority’s Regional Modelling System is required as an input to the Business Case
- the project must be fully funded by third party finance
