Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is, and to give an example of the interplay we now face, I know that the plant to which the Chairman referred has a number of specific needs which we can address at another point but if we look at the development taking place in our timber industry and the changes now taking place in agricultural communities due to the abolition of milk quotas, all of those have profound and direct consequences on the transport needs of those sectors. I met representatives from the felling industry and the timber companies and they are saying they will need a road network that is capable of carrying, with increased frequency, very large trucks carrying large amounts of timber.

All of the leading dairy companies and farming organisations have raised with me the separate issue of transport needs arising out of the abolition of the milk quota. Ultimately, we will have to examine how best moneys can be spent on different parts of our infrastructure to ensure at least some of those needs are met. I know the rail network plays a major part in that but there is a great deal of cost involved in the maintenance and new build of rail infrastructure. We are currently trying to find a way of balancing all of that.