Mr. Jim Meade:

I thank the Deputy. The whole western rail corridor is a success story. When it was built in the run-up to the financial crash people thought it was going to be a white elephant and it is anything but that. Back when it opened in 2010 it was carrying just over 180,000 customers and last year we carried just under 630,000. Our problem on it now is we have not got the capacity. I am sure the Deputy is getting regular complaints from his constituents to say they cannot get a seat on the Galway train. I am happy to say we have got some funding from the National Transport Authority to do a capacity study. We are looking to extend the platform so we can put on longer trains as the new trains roll out so we can physically put more capacity on that line.

There is certainly a lot of support for the Crusheen stop, as there is with us. We are happy to build the Crusheen stop as soon as it gets funded. The local authority has procured some land where the station will go to signal its intent to support such an addition to the line. We are ready, willing and able once the funding is put in place.

The Shannon rail link is part of the all-island strategic rail review that all three airports, namely, Belfast, Dublin and Shannon, are connected to the national rail network. We are currently, with the Department, understanding what the phasing will be under the all-island strategic rail review in the sense of deciding what we will do in the next five years, the next ten years and so on. One of the issues we have put on the table is we should start that study and scope it out. Relative to the size of the project it is small funding. I should not say it is only €2 million because €1 million can do an awful lot, but it will take relatively small money to scope out the project, understand the route, get detailed costings put in place and get ready to go to railway order.