Mr. Jim Meade:

I cannot let that mention of sporting events go without comment. As a County Clare man and with the Liam MacCarthy Cup back in the county this year, I understand the sentiment of needing to get people to special events. I would say the cup is back in its spiritual home but the Tipperary crowd would not agree with me.

The Deputy mentioned the three-hour journey time from Sligo to Dublin. We acknowledge that. It is a long distance. I am very happy to say that the issue is recognised in the all-Ireland strategic rail review. We are looking at those journey times. The person the Deputy was talking to must have had a glance at the review because we are looking at whether we can come across to Hazelhatch and come in.

That is one of the projects we will examine to see if we can bring some of the trains across that way and into Heuston Station rather than into Connolly Station to try to decongest and further utilise the four-track system. I am happy to say the early services into Sligo are on our radar. Once we start to get that fleet into service that I referenced earlier, that will create a cascade for us. We are putting all that fleet on the northern road because we have the charging infrastructure at Drogheda. They can run under the wires and go to Drogheda and be charged, if necessary, in 20 minutes and be back out again. Then we can take the intercity railcars, ICRs, which are the silver trains that currently run on the Sligo road and are more intercity stock and more suited to a route such as that. We are looking at bringing services back into Sligo in the morning as opposed to just everything heading towards Dublin. In our staff planning, we are looking at having the driver resource in place as well to be able to do that as soon as we have the fleet.