Mr. Frank Allen:

There was a derailment in Dún Laoghaire some weeks ago. It is currently being investigated. There was no injury to anybody. There was serious inconvenience to many people over an extended period. The investigation is not yet complete, but one of the reasons that is likely to emerge from that investigation is that Iarnród Éireann is using manual interventions to a greater extent than it would like. When there are more manual interventions, there is a greater chance that something will go wrong. Continued investment in upgrading signalling and so forth would have made that less likely to have happened. It did not result in injury or anything, but if there was more of that sort of thing, it could over time increase the likelihood of serious safety incidents. I can confirm that I am not aware of any incident of a serious nature that arose because of failure to maintain the track. Some of the things that arise are less likely to arise given investment. The response to that problem is to have the trains go slower. If the trains go slower, fewer people will use them, and that is the kernel of the issue. Investing in improved maintenance and improved signalling will allow the railway to run at optimal route speeds and will get more people using the railway. That is how it works.