Mr. Frank Dawson:

No. There are track charges for passengers, but that is another day's work. We are talking exclusively here about the attractiveness for a customer seeking to charter a train. I reiterate that Iarnród Éireann should not be asked to bear the burden of reducing those charges when no other railway company in Europe is being asked to do so. The cost of subsidy is not extraordinary. As I said earlier, the return has been calculated to be 4:1. For every €1 of subsidy offered to Irish Rail to reduce the charge, economic calculations suggest the State will receive €4 in return in carbon and congestion savings. It is all based on a business case, which is why Britain is allocating £23 million to £24 million a year to subsidise rail freight. It is why France put €900 million on the table to be spent over a number of years to subsidise track charges. We do not do it and, as such, we are very much out of step with the rest of Europe.