Mr. Jim Meade:

For a long time, the concept was for there to be a heavy rail link to the airport along with the light rail link or the MetroLink proposed. The airport will need both over time. While many decades ago it was an either-or situation, it is now both. I am happy to say that connectivity to the three key airports on the island of Ireland, namely, Belfast, Dublin and Shannon, are in the All-Island Strategic Rail Review and are called out as a need to do as part of that..

Certainly, trains would be going north of Clongriffin and turning left and going in under the flight path. That would be the route. The Deputy's other point is valid in that the four-tracking would be needed to maximise the capacity of it. As we land the new fleets over the next number of years, and as we said, we have up to a decade to call them off, once you add and create that capacity to carry the people, then this could most certainly be done in time. It is envisaged that we would do it as part of the All-Island Strategic Rail Review.