Mr. Frank Allen:

The all-island rail review was announced recently by the Department of Transport in Dublin and the Department for Infrastructure in Belfast. A steering group is being established and it is going to procurement to retain people to provide the review. I hope the review will take a wide view of what the benefits of public transport are and will include issues such as freight rather than just congestion relief around the cities. We have a very exciting opportunity and doing this in an integrated way with Northern Ireland is very welcome. The review is under way and the Department of Transport is leading. My colleagues in Iarnród Éireann, including the chief executive, are very much involved in the process.

On the resilience of rail infrastructure, the place that is most vulnerable to coastal erosion at the moment is south of Dublin, which I am sure the Deputy is pleased to hear. How urgent is it? The longer it takes for us to do the work, the more urgent it becomes. The unpredictability of major weather events, with once in 100 year events becoming more frequent, means that if nothing is done about the railway line south of Dublin, it will not be safe to operate within 20 or 30 years. I am very pleased this work has the support of the Department of Transport and that the design work is under way. When the work goes ahead, as I am confident it will, the coastal erosion will be dealt with for another generation and beyond. I am happy that people recognise the urgency of this work and that it will proceed in the coming years, with the most urgent places done first. Left unattended, the situation would be very serious.

On apprenticeships, we have continued to be very proactive in recruiting new apprentices. I recently met a class that had joined during the pandemic. We are very keen to recruit more women into our apprenticeship roles. Apprenticeship is a critical part of our people strategy and we are giving it a high priority. Much of the senior management of the company came through apprenticeships. We will continue to be absolutely committed to apprenticeship.