Ms Anne Graham:

As I explained to Deputy O'Rourke, engagement had taken place with Irish Rail, which had engaged with its contractor at that time. That was the timeframe that was considered reasonable at the time. We were happy to then put that in the announcement we made at the time of the fares determination. Since then, there have been further engagements with Irish Rail and its contractor. They have informed us that they are not in a position to meet the timeline we had set out and publicised. Unfortunately, we were in a position where we had to give the timeline that has now been given to us, which is quarter 1 of next year.

That is not a situation we want to be in. We did not introduce the information casually yesterday. It was in response to a parliamentary question. We are obliged, if we are asked a parliamentary question, to respond with the most up-to-date information we have. We could have chosen not to respond to the request for information yesterday so that it would not feature in the discussion we had today, but that is not a position we normally take. We are happy to be here to explain the situation to Deputies. We are not happy to be in this position, but we are happy to give as much information as we currently have regarding the unfortunate timeline that has now been introduced.