Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)

The all-Ireland rail review recommended the reinstatement of the Athenry to Claremorris section. My focus and that of the Ministers of State, Deputies Canney and Buttimer, is on taking forward the recommendation from the review around. We are working on that with the European Investment Bank and other funding mechanisms to supplement the NDP. Ultimately, the NDP review provide those allocations. In my response to Deputy O'Gorman earlier, I explained the process.

We hope to have an overall allocation in July. It will probably take us until September, when we come back, to allocate the capital across our line items under our Vote in each of the sections, as I outlined. Obviously, decisions will then need to be made with regard to which projects are going to progress. Thankfully, a lot of projects that we can advance have now gone through planning. It is a balance between what we need on roads, public transport and rail.

I agree with the Deputy on rail infrastructure. The north west is an area where further improvements need to be made. In my view, one of the main reasons for traffic congestion in Galway is the Galway ring road-----