Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

May I ask another question? It pertains to the rail markets and the comment that the European rail markets currently are facing stagnation or decline and that the Commission therefore is proposing far-reaching measures to encourage greater innovation in European Union railways by opening up EU domestic passenger markets to competition. The witnesses should expand a little more on this as it relates to Ireland and on what that idea might entail. While I have no evidence to hand, in Ireland we tend not to use railway lines at all.

I come from the Carlow-Kilkenny area and I am sometimes amazed to see the train passing at the station in Gowran with very few people aboard. It seems we still have not made that switchover in our heads, that to use public transport is better, if only from the point of view of carbon emissions. What is the Department doing in this regard to try to encourage people to use the public systems?