Mr. Chris Hazzard:

I thank the Deputy for raising these issues. On rail expansion and delivering on the growing capacity issues, there is a growing public demand to use rail services, which is fantastic, and the Government needs to stand ready. Our programme for Government includes a high level study of the expansion of the eastern economic corridor. I purposely included Derry in this because I believe we need to consider Derry, Belfast, Dublin and Cork when we consider rail expansion. We will invest heavily in this area.

I am aware of the newspaper report to which the Deputy referred and some of the other issues he mentioned. Rail is on the agenda for the discussion with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport later this month. I am also looking at plans to enhance rail services from Newry to Belfast where there are also capacity issues. In recent weeks, I took the decision, working with colleagues in Dublin, to address the possibility of passengers in Dublin boarding a train for Derry. To date, we have not had the opportunity to see Derry as a destination on the departure board at Connolly Station. It is important to make people aware that they can also travel from Dublin to Derry by train.

Much of the work ahead will involve the expansion of the eastern economic corridor. One of the major disappointments for me regarding Brexit is connected to the major opportunities presented in the area of ship to rail. The electrification of rail will deal with some of the time issues the Deputy raises, a number of which are connected to the specification and engineering quality of the track. Replacing the track would be a major imposition on the public purse and we know the position with regard to the public finances in the North in recent years. One of the major disappointments of Brexit is that we had hopes and a vision for meeting the demand to provide a higher quality rail service, especially between Belfast and Dublin, and the possibility of securing funding in future has been removed. These are issues I took up with the Commissioner when we visited Rotterdam. This is a huge disappointment.