Mr. John Fitzgerald:

Deputy O'Donovan referred to the rail corridor. The rail review I adverted to some minutes ago is a job we are doing along with CIE. CIE is not the only organisation involved; we are doing it too. We have people working with CIE and we are looking hard at it. Iarnród Éireann got into real trouble last year in terms of the amount of money available and in respect of the work it was expected to do. Some of the rail lines are heavily oversubscribed but some are heavily underutilised too. Let us consider the money end of it and the economics. There are probably several railway lines which, one could argue, should not be there any more. However, we are conscious of the social aspect of those lines. We are also mindful of the potential tourist revenues that might flow from those if there were developed in that way as well, something Deputy O'Donovan referred to as well. The line from Waterford to Limerick is heavily under-utilised but at the same time there is value in the route.

The job we are doing with CIE is precisely what Deputy O'Donovan was referring to. The idea is to examine the railway network, the cost of running it and what is required to keep it running as it is, on the assumption that we wish or can afford to keep it all running as it is. Some lines are so heavily under-utilised that they cannot cost-justify themselves any more. The objective is to try to make them cost-justify themselves.

Reference was made to licences. I was unaware of the issue of the role of licences. However, Deputy O'Donovan appears to be successful in the sense that he keeps raising the matter. Certainly, it has come to my consciousness in more recent times and it is being discussed. We have been talking to the taxi advisory group about it, as has Deputy O'Donovan. We have discussed it a good deal among ourselves. Our systems probably have not been the best in terms of how to deal with it up to now. They are far better now than they were. It is something I will keep a close eye on myself because I know the issues involved rather well.

There was a question about the National Roads Authority and ourselves. If Fred Barry from the NRA was before the committee he would probably tell the committee that the NRA should take over the National Transport Authority.