Mr. Barry O'Connell:

I have a couple of points on this. There has been rail access and rail connectivity to Dublin Port for decades. The infrastructure in Dublin Port and nationally to support rail freight has been far more extensive in the past. It is not a question of access. The question is about demand. In 2022 rail freight accounted for 1% of our total volume in the port. Half of this was driven by Tara Mines. This is a commodity that is particularly well suited to rail freight. This is not a question of access but demand.

If we look at the question of carbon and emissions we must look at the journey from A to B as opposed to one mode of freight versus another directly. What I mean by this is if we compare HGV versus rail over 300 km then rail will win. The difference is when we look at how the detail of the system could work. If cargo is off-loaded onto a jetty and then loaded onto a train which, by the way, potentially creates a massive disruption in a very confined port because everything would stop, then we move-----