Mr. Jim Meade:

It is important to note that we work very closely with Translink, and I understand that my opposite number, Mr. Chris Conway, made a submission to this committee on that. We are working closely on service provision. We are looking at replacing the entire Enterprise fleet with the assistance of some Special EU Programmes Body, SEUPB, funding under the peace process. That would move us to an hourly service all day, which we do not have on that line at present. We believe there is demand for an hourly service. There is close connectivity between the two companies and it works very well.

On the expansion and recommendation of routes, all options are being considered and that is what Arup is doing. It is looking at the various areas that could be connected, how those connections could work and what the recommendations would be. Arup has not come back on that piece to the group that Mr. Muldoon is on or to us on the steering group. That is a work in progress. It is part of work package 1, which they are doing. As we progress through the process, that will become more apparent. They will look at where those connections should and should not be, and short-list the viable ones. From that point of view, it is very much a work in progress. The Deputy mentioned Navan and connectivity beyond the existing network. That is being considered as part of it.

We believe there is a great opportunity for freight. As I said in my statement, we published our strategy last year. We move approximately 1% of the freight that moves on the island and we believe we should be in double digits and we need to grow to double digits. Any containerised traffic that moves by rail reduces the carbon footprint of that individual container by 75%. In some ways it is a no-brainer. We are looking to reconnect to the ports, which is part of our overall plan. It dovetails with the LSMATS for Shannon Foynes Port Company. That is a port that has a lot of capacity and it will have further capacity in the future once we reconnect.

Dublin Port was referred to. We had an issue last year in that the port was at capacity. It is struggling with capacity. It is the major port on the island of Ireland, so we have a working group working directly with Dublin Port to understand how we can do more through the port, while dealing with its capacity issue, which is ongoing. It does not make sense that the premier port in the country is not rail connected. That is an issue we still have to work through.

We see the potential in offshore wind on two fronts. We own and operate Rosslare Europort.

We see Rosslare Europort having serious potential to service the renewable energy, RE, industry. We have capacity to expand there. We are in the middle of the Irish Sea and Celtic Sea, so for access for those who will be building out the windmills there that is an opportunity for them. Once that type of industry is established, and the south east can become a hub for that industry, by extension there will be spin-off industries to service it. We see that having a benefit for rail and freight as a whole. It is probably too early to quantify what it would be, but it is certainly something we are looking at.

On Killucan, we have met with the representatives of Killucan previously. Indeed, the Minister met with me and some representatives of Killucan last year. It is up to Westmeath and its development plan as to whether it sees that as an area it wants to develop. If that is the decision in the county development plan, we would build a station. At present, it is not on our agenda, it is not funded and it is not in the current planning profile of projects.