The Gorey Details

Wexford is Leinster’s biggest county. It’s a constituency that has existed since the early years of the state. While geographically it remains the same, in terms of its voters it is a very different place to what it was at the start of the century. Voters at the south end of the county gravitate towards Waterford for services. Those in Gorey often travel to Dublin. Travelling time is less and many Dubliners have moved south to find a more affordable home. A walk around Gorey gives you an interesting insight into the local economy. Plenty of take aways, restaurants, bars for socialising. The boutiques, coffee shops and business on the main street.

However Gorey has planning issues. Retail has moved to the fringe of the town centre while housing is a long walk away. For commuters arriving late home from work, there’s the added nuisance of the need to drive to Tesco or Dunnes if the fridge is empty. It’s a town with more traffic than comparable towns in the county.

But when it comes to politics, the D’arcy name is synonymous with the town. The town centre and the agricultural hinterland has been good to Fine Gael.  That was until last November when Malcolm Byrne won the bye election for Fianna Fail. Michael D’arcy faces into this election with the challenge of his near neighbour for the lion’s share of the local vote. North of Gorey there is no large urban area. If both Byrne and D’arcy are to succeed they need to battle for local dominance and move south into James Browne’s bailiwick.

There is no other significant candidate in the local area. The Green Candidate withdrew despite her good showing.  The party has installed a replacement however their website gives no details. Draw your own conclusions as to how the party regard her chances.

Gorey will elect one TD. But could it possibly elect 2? Opinion polls show that Fine Gael may be losing votes, however it is as to, who, where and how much is lost that may decide whether it is D’arcy of Kehoe or both is elected.

Conventional wisdom suggests Fine Gael will win 2 seats. However, consider this. Fine Gael according to one poll is losing votes to Sinn Fein. In 2016, Paul Kehoe just about held on by 50 votes from Sinn Fein’s johnny Mythen.  He is vulnerable to further vote loss and while Fine Gael may be losing votes over all, were he to proportionally lose more than Kehoe, Kehoe could be eliminated but electing D’arcy on his transfers. There’s a school of thought that it may be Kehoe under more pressure than Michael D’arcy. Kehoe also sees Verona Murphy on the prowl in the South West where he usually performs well.  That scenario would see Johnny Mythen take the second seat in Enniscorthy District instead of Paul Kehoe.

Fanciful? Maybe but it is something to bear in mind as the count progresses. Malcolm Byrne would prefer Kehoe to hang in and to see D’arcy under pressure in the hope that a D’arcy elimination will send Gorey transfers his way to elect him.

That’s politics, candidates spend all day wondering how to get elected and the rest of the day trying to see how they can stay elected.

All aboard for the Ross lair express

So here we go again.  The old leaked report that the Minister is studying on his desk. Once more Minister Shane Ross is said to be studying a report to include for closure the Gorey Rosslare railway.  It’s hard not to be cynical about Irish Rail, its management and its practices.  Minister Shane Ross cut his political teeth on his scepticism about Irish Rail corporate governance and protection of assets.  Surely as he studies the document he’ll recall Irish Rail’s past failings and he’ll call management to book.

And account they should.  Irish Rail still operates a management based on notional districts rather than around the services they actually deliver. Irish Rail has capitulated in the freight division to road freight.  This despite the EU directive that by 2030 30% of all freight to travel over 300 Km must go by either rail or shipping.  Roll on Brexit and our need to diversify our markets beyond the UK and how are we doing so far? Well we’ve less than 0.5% so far. Irish Rail freight has just 4 customers. How can you run a business based on that? The proposal to end passenger services to Rosslare tells you all you need to know about their sense of vision post Brexit. The fundamental economics of the rail industry is that it moves freight very efficiently large distances. On top of that passenger services are the extra, not the core business.

Doubtless we’ll hear about the number of passengers on social welfare passes and the failure of the government to pay enough. Irish Rail has a point on this one, but it’s wider than social welfare passengers.  The network was cut to the bone in 60’s and that was supposed to be that. Instead there are real fears that what will be left is Dublin/Cork and Limerick with commuter services and little else. 

The failure of the operator to maintain infrastructure means that speeds on the line are dropping which means that journey times are longer when compared to motorways.

And there’s no place like home either to tell you how Irish Rail play hard and fast with figures to get the decision they need when it suits them.  About 7 years ago Irish Rail pointed up annual losses of over €2M on the Rosslare Waterford line as grounds to suspend passenger services on that route.  Key to the business plan for closure was the cost of manning 24 hours the Barrow Bridge. The signal box on the bridge controls the swing engine on the bridge allowing access to New Ross up the Barrow. The NTA allowed the company to reduce costs by scheduling the shifts on that signal box with the pilot’s hours at New Ross Harbour as part of the plan to suspend services.  Incredibly the bridge remained manned in the last 7 years by Irish Rail.

Irish Rail has failed to promote international passenger services through Rosslare Europort. You cannot buy a Sail Rail ticket from the Irish Rail website.  So is it any wonder people are flying with budget airlines when the rail operator does not compete?

The advantage of a rail network is that you can take a passenger from station to station for the same price all year round.  I don’t live close to an airport. Most airline passengers either have an inward journey to their departing airport and an outward journey when they land. Dublin Airport’s passenger numbers will this year exceed 25M. The nearest railway is about 4 miles away over open flat farmland.  Where is the vision to connect up the rail system to Dublin Airport so as to tap into that market?

And to finish off, let’s not forget that the report is based on data collected in November 2015 on the day before Storm Abigail when people were warned not to make unnecessary journeys. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so serious. However at least Minister Ross has a track record on seeing through the waffle when it comes to Irish Rail. He has a track record in business. Irish Rail is a business and needs to be run business-like.  It’ll be interesting to see his response and how he’ll deal with the issue.  It’s one thing to be a prisoner of officials, it’s another thing to have a belief.