Mr. Frank Allen:

Rather than look at the network as a whole we do that type of assessment on a line by line, service by service basis. In that type of assessment people are walking the track and engineers are examining signalling systems and, based on that, in certain parts of the network at present we have reduced the speed of service. We do not wish to do that but these are the steps that have been taken in response to the type of investigation the Deputy mentioned. That is done on a daily and ongoing basis. As that continues if further changes are required to maintain passenger safety, they will happen. We hope it does not come to that and we are confident that funding will be made available to us to remove those speed restrictions rather than put more of them in place. That is our highest priority.

The Deputy raised the issue of 24 hours' notice for wheelchair users. I agree with the Deputy that it is too long. I will refer back to the board and management of Iarnród Eireann to see what can be done so people who require wheelchair assistance will not be required to give a full day's notice. I cannot give the Deputy an answer today.