Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I have a few technical questions that are very different. It will be no surprise to our witnesses that I will be concentrating on rural issues for a change. I appreciate that there has been a dramatic increase in connectivity in rural Ireland over the past few years.

I acknowledge that. There are criticisms of other things but I really want to acknowledge that. I think it is excellent. We have a bus route, which I fought for for years, from Nenagh to Limerick via all the villages. It is the 323 and it is fantastic. It will grow and grow. We do need bus stops but we will get there.

However, I wanted to ask questions about the integration of all of this. I am a huge fan of integrated transport. I had to drive up here this morning. I would love to have got the train from Nenagh. I cannot get a train from Nenagh that will meet the requirements of the time I have to be here. In the all-Ireland rail review, the Limerick-Shannon strategic report and all that, what plans are there for the Ballybrophy line, for example? It has been threatened with closure on numerous occasions. I had to intervene myself once upon a time. What plans are there to upgrade the likes of that line? Now that so many people are working from home and commuting, surely there is greater capacity to invest in lines like that and the Waterford to Limerick line, improve timetables and integrate them with bus services? Have we anything concrete on that?