Mr. Barry Kenny:

On the change of the fleet, outside of the Dublin-Cork and Dublin-Belfast routes, on the national network we predominantly operate our passenger services with diesel railcars. They are not locomotive-hauled, they have integral diesel engines in each carriage. That is a relatively young fleet. Thankfully, before the economic crisis hit we were in a position to replace the old orange trains which members will remember, which dated from the 1960s to the early 1980s, with these trains. We have 234 carriages in that fleet, which is our largest single fleet and that is the fleet to which we will be adding 41 carriages with those negotiations at the moment with the supplier. I alluded to the point earlier that as an asset, a train lasts a long time. It is not like a car or other vehicles in terms of their renewal. It is a good 30-year-plus asset in any circumstance.

We are working with Rolls-Royce MTU in trialling a hybrid unit on those trains in order that they would become diesel hybrid trains in due course. That would allow us to both reduce the cost of fuel and to reduce the emissions by a third. Those trials are ongoing. Ultimately, we are using some of those trains in the commuter belt because it is answering a need that we have right now, whereas they are more suited to intercity travel overall. As new trains come into our fleet, it will allow us to make sure they get to their more natural service and it will allow us to increase the frequency and capacity of individual services.

We also need to look at the line speeds around the network. It is fair to say that while we have competitive times, when the motorway network was developed it eroded the competitiveness. We are carrying out certain works and in recent years we have done much work on the main Dublin-Cork route, off which branch the Waterford, Limerick and Tralee routes, so it is the route that impacts more directly on most intercity customers. That has given us some moderate benefits in journey time by addressing the trackbed. It is something we need to move on with and we need to start re-railing on those lines. As well as that being a necessary safety investment, we could also yield journey time improvements from that.

Speed and frequency will be huge in attracting new users but we must also make the service easier to use. I am probably pre-empting Senator Kieran O'Donnell because I know he is a regular customer of ours. I refer to issues such as Wi-Fi and the ease of doing business on board. We are in the process of renewing the Wi-Fi equipment on board the services because it can be a productive time when customers are on board.

We have completely recast our promotional fares and our booking system, which gives alternatives in flexibility. We all know that when we are looking at airline websites some people will just go for the low fare and the limited flexibility that they must travel on that service. Some people, business people in particular, need greater flexibility so we have three major ticketing types now to meet those different markets, namely, low fare; semi-flexible and fully flexible. We will soon begin the process of introducing barcode ticketing. Thankfully, after the under-investment we will now be able to do these things such as moving on from the collection of tickets at machines by having tickets on mobile phones.

On Waterford station, I have in-laws in Tramore so I hope for the usual dry days because they always tell me to walk across the bridge before they collect me at the far side because of the access into Plunkett Station so I am well familiar with the point the Senator is making there. We are very much engaged with the north quays development. It is not a matter of us answering when asked. We see the huge benefit that is there. Right now, as the Senator knows, post the rockfall which was experienced, we have a single track and a single platform operational. We have quite an old signalling system and that will need to be upgraded over the next five to ten years as well. We are looking at having double track alignments with two new platforms into the north quays site, which would integrate bus transport as well. That track layout would also provide for improved connectivity for rail freight to the Port of Waterford.

In Rosslare Europort, we are a roll-on roll-off port. The Senator mentioned that the Port of Waterford is a lift-on lift-off port so we can be complimentary to each other and Rosslare Europort, the Port of Waterford and New Ross Port Company have been working together. Brexit is obviously key. I am sure we would all agree that it seems there is a great amount of doubt again about what the ultimate outcome of that will be. We already have the various agencies operational at Rosslare Europort and they were ready for March 29 and there will be improved road access to Rosslare Europort for roll-on, roll-off.

We had a Ballina-Waterford container business but unfortunately the operator of that discontinued it. The volumes were not resulting for the operator but we continue to operate wood pulp from the west of Ireland to Waterford. While we have scope to grow now and are working with the exporters and others to identify those opportunities, for Plunkett Station the works and investments associated with the north quays site will allow for greater exploitation of that again into the future. We will be deepening our co-operation with the Port of Waterford and New Ross Port Company because the three ports effectively mean there is a network of ports in the south east that can meet the needs of business and the needs of those business operating through our ports, for whom connectivity to both mainland Europe and to Britain is so crucial.