Mr. Colmán Ó Raghallaigh:

I reaffirm that we compliment Iarnród Éireann on the manner in which it has faced up to issues that have arisen in this matter. It has introduced competitive pricing, online booking and various other measures, including free car parking at different stations along the route. Increasing the speed of services may not cost that much, given that such fine infrastructure has been put in place. It is a state-of-the-art railway and I would like to think that with a little tweaking and without great expense, the timetable could be tightened a little. Ten minutes would make an enormous difference in a service between Galway and Limerick. We recognise the great effort that has been made by Iarnród Éireann in recent years to make this a competitive railway. It is getting a reward, as statistics demonstrate.

The Chairman mentioned in passing that sections of the railway are being singled out for observation by the media and various other parties. No other part of the railway network would see a station in the middle picked, along with another further down, to calculate the performance of the overall network. I have the timetable for the Galway to Limerick service in my pocket and It is unfair to Iarnród Éireann to judge its performance on the basis of the passenger numbers between Ennis and Athenry. The sooner we consider the railway in its entirety, from Galway to Limerick, and praising Iarnród Éireann for its excellent performance, the better. It is not appropriate for a single section to receive undue focus.

The expenditure to open the middle section was put in and now we have a Galway to Limerick route. That is what is online and on the scheduled timetable.

In every other railway, in Ireland and in the world, the performance of a railway route is measured by the number of passengers who travel from the moment the train leaves the first station until it arrives at its ultimate destination, whether they travel ten miles, 50 miles or 100 miles.