Mr. Graham Lightfoot:

I was hoping to take a minute to make two points. One is that we are very fortunate in having a working rail line. The point I want to make about that picks up on what Deputy Matthews said, which is to sweat the asset. We need to make the point that there has been investment but we have not seen any changes in service or speed levels for 32 years. I think Mr. Stacpoole said it was 75 years. My experience in the 32 years I have lived in County Clare going up and down that particular line is that it has got slower and slower and is not so good. The point I wanted to make about sweating the asset is really important. This includes some cross-committee work because it is the development of the towns, villages and communities along the line that will make it successful. Improvements to the line in terms of service levels and speeds will contribute to that development.

We are discussing the all-Ireland rail review. I presume the committee has looked at the Connecting Ireland process that is under way and will do so again. My feeling is that maybe connecting Ireland is what we are about. That is the whole thing. This sort of silo mentality whereby this is rail, this is-----