Mr. Howard Knott:

I thank the Chair and members. Fundamentally, my perspective is that of the Irish Exporters Association, IEA, which is a not-for-profit membership organisation established during the 1950s with a mission to help companies based in Ireland lead economic growth through the development of exports of both goods and services. In the case of manufacturing businesses, a critical factor in achieving export success is having an efficient, competitive and environmentally-sustainable supply chain. It is worth noting that increasingly, the IDA is asked to supply information on the sustainability of these transport links in its discussions with incoming foreign direct investment prospects. This supply chain can be made up of many links, which involve different combinations of transport modes using ports, roads, railways, airports etc. In freight volume terms, the ports are key, which is something that is recognised in both Irish and European Union transport policies. Transport between the manufacturers and the ports has been dominated by the use of road and up to now, rail has played a minor role. In 2009, the association set up the widely-based IEA rail freight group as part of its trade facilitation project. The objective in this regard was to facilitate the development of a modern rail freight industry that could give exporting companies a sustainable and competitive alternative to road freight, to access both ports, in the case of exporting goods in containers, and suppliers.

The announcement of the IDA's new strategic plan with ambitious targets for enterprise growth throughout the regions and the fact that 88% of manufacturing plants are located outside the Dublin area will increase pressure on the national road and rail infrastructure and will require further investment in them. Plans are being developed with European Union backing for the restoration of the rail link for freight from the port of Foynes to the network at Limerick, together with ambitious plans for the development of Foynes as a centre for processing energy products, as well as agribusiness inputs. These plans would be greatly aided by a linked-up rail network running north through Connacht and the development of part of the trans-European transport network, TEN-T. The planned development of Galway Port has similar infrastructural requirements. In the context of the TEN-T, which traditionally has been perceived as favouring the development of what are called the category one ports, that is, the major ports rather than smaller ports, it is interesting to note there is a realisation that projects other than those on the TEN-T corridors are well worth consideration. Moreover, this was confirmed by discussions we had with the TEN-T people in Brussels last February. Members probably will have heard of the Juncker proposals but essentially, the Community is stating that projects that actually stand up and which could be put into operation quite quickly, if only the folk had the money with which to do it, then Europe is willing to stump up at least a significant proportion of the money. This probably should be taken into account in considering the issues raised by Mr. Colmán Ó Raghallaigh and Mr. Frank Dawson.

The Irish Exporters Association, like West-on-Track, supports strongly the Western Development Commission's initiative in commissioning the study of potential demand for rail freight services serving the western region. It is important to take up that term, "serving the western region" because while the main item this morning pertains to a link between Athenry and Claremorris, it is extremely important to realise that when one considers it from the point of view of the exporting customer, whether in Mayo, Galway, Kerry or elsewhere, it is not simply a matter of getting the product out of its place of origin. It is a matter of getting the product to the port from which it will leave Ireland. A company that is obliged to truck everything from these places to Dublin and that happened to hit the M50 yesterday morning would have been obliged to wait for an hour and a half to get from the N7 junction to the port tunnel. That is not very clever and is not very useful for anybody and therefore, it is important to look at other transport options. Rail will require money, which is a difficulty, but has a potential in certain cases to meet this requirement.

The greenhouse gas savings aspect is something of which we have become more aware, certainly over the past five years. I believe the legislation currently before the Oireachtas on this subject of energy efficiency should take into account that manufacturing companies are being asked repeatedly what is the carbon footprint of their product. They are being asked what is the carbon footprint of the logistics of their products and whether they are getting them to the potential customers in the most environmentally-friendly way. If a company responds by saying it sticks the product on a truck in Ballina and it comes off that truck in Frankfurt, one is dead and will not succeed. I thank the committee.