Mr. Jim Meade:

I take the Deputy's point.

Freight tends to be high volume and long haul. That is the model that works well for any freight operation. That said, we have some freight operations across the network.

The board has asked me to examine the future of freight. The timing is probably good in that we are now starting to ask what opportunities could we start looking at for freight in terms of what can be moved off-road due to the environmental impact. We are re-examining our freight operation.

Freight has to wash its face. We cannot subvent it or use any public funds for it. We are starting to look at freight. The board has given us the task of determining the potential for freight, what should we be targeting in the future and how should we get there, as well as examining what the capital cost of doing that would be and what capital infrastructure would be needed. It is work in progress for us. There are no real plans beyond that.

The Taoiseach spoke only a couple of weeks ago about the Atlantic corridor almost needing to grow at double the rate of Dublin if we are to be sustainable, as Deputy Martin Kenny mentioned. All we want to do, with increased services with hourly services into the regions, is to assist that and to make all that connectivity work. It is very much our plan to continue the infrastructure investment programme and to continue, as I referenced earlier to other Deputies, reducing journeying times and improving the fleet. That is the first step for us. That is the big issue at present. We need more carrying capacity and to reduce journey times but it aligns with the aspiration to develop the Atlantic corridor.

We are looking at Brexit. The Dublin-Belfast Enterprise service is important to us. That service is probably symbolic, as much as anything else, of what has happened in our country for decades. A hard Brexit would be traumatic for the service as all the drivers would lose their licences, the safety certifications for Northern Ireland Railways to operate in the Republic would be an issue and the fleet itself would be an issue. We have a working party, together with Translink, of which Northern Ireland Railways is a subset, examining how we would manage a hard Brexit. We are working on the basis of a worst-case scenario. If there is a step back from that, all the better. We have a team examining how we would manage next April if there was a hard Brexit. The focus of the team is normal service from the customers' point of view. Our plan is very much about whatever arrangements we need to put in place in the background so that the service is not disrupted.

The Chairman asked about the upgrade of Ennis station. I mentioned to one of the other Deputies that we have put in place a seven-year plan to start reinvesting in the stations.

Ennis will be part of that, as will all stations. Through-ticketing is part of our Customer First programme. If members use the website, they will probably see that it has changed. It is much better and a much more user-friendly environment. Through-ticketing will be part of the roll-out of phases 2 and 3 of that programme.