Mr. Frank Dawson:

I agree with the Deputy. He asked about the proximity of the Apple site to the railway. It is adjacent to it.

It was deliberately developed by IDA Ireland because of its proximity to the railway, not to the station but to the railway line.

With regard to figures for freight trains, we have figures that we are very happy to share with the Department. We have already shared some of them with Iarnród Éireann. We are happy to contribute our calculations and to back them up. All freight trains have a gross profit at the moment. If a subsidy of €1.3 million was provided to Iarnród Éireann at the moment it could halve its track access charges, which would make the railway even more attractive to customers and more profitable. The French Government put €900 million on the table to subsidise rail freight in 2007 in a very deliberate campaign to subsidise it and to directly subsidise track access charges. The British Government puts about £23 million a year on the table to subsidise rail freight. We do not put a penny.