Mr. Frank Allen:

At its most recent meeting, the board of Iarnród Éireann had a lengthy discussion on a new people strategy. As the Senator mentioned, people are our most important asset. We have various training initiatives and are putting in place a joint industrial council. Iarnród Éireann is an organisation of 4,000 people. We try to solve issues that emerge as soon as possible and as far as possible within the organisation and without going to third parties.

The idea is to try to resolve them as soon as possible as much as possible without the organisation going to third parties.

We cannot deliver all the other aspects of our strategy unless we have the people strategy in place in a robust way. We are absolutely committed to that and I share the conclusion of the committee on that.

There was a question about the relationship with the National Transport Authority. There is an excellent relationship. It is a robust one. Sometimes we complain that the authority does not give us more or wants us to do more in one way or the other. That is exactly as we would expect it to be with a regulatory or funding authority. Anyway, there is a professional relationship and rigour in the analysis that the authority carries out in the proposals we put forward. I know the people there at management level well and we are pleased with that relationship.