Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the witnesses and congratulate Ms Considine on her new appointment. She has a tough act to follow. Not only did Mr. Jim Meade oversee a very progressive team, as Ms Considine stated, but he also oversaw a mindset change. I remember about ten years ago, when I was on the council, three of us from Tralee went to a council meeting in Rathmore. We took the train and people laughed at us but it is accepted now that public transport is really an option with more trains and such a reliable service.

Last week, I had to deal with Mr. Kenny about an issue of later trains going down to Limerick and Cork. I welcome the witnesses' offer to come in and meet us. As public representatives, we need to have answers for our constituents as soon as possible. I know from her previous role that Ms Considine was excellent at doing that. I congratulate her.

I have a couple of questions. I welcome the all-Ireland approach that is being taken. We have seen decades of rail lines and services being shuttered up over many years. It makes common sense, particularly for the west and north west of the country, to open up. Senator Joanne Collins set out in a very practical way the need for the western rail corridor to open up all the way so you can get a train from Limerick - ideally, it would be from Tralee - to Sligo and the practical difficulties of getting that. I hope that is going to be done.

The catering services were mentioned. I find it difficult to understand. There was a figure of €2 million mentioned to get this up and running. The longest train journey in the State is from Tralee to Heuston Station, which is almost a four-hour journey. Many older people and people getting medical appointments use that service. They like a direct line. They do not want to have to change at Mallow and there is no catering service on that. I find it difficult to see how it would be hard for the company coming in to make a profit. Why can there not be a bottle of water? I recently spoke to one of Irish Rail's customer service operators who was sitting in a dining carriage. I asked why it could not be used. Directly employing staff would be my view on it but I am not an expert.

There was also mention of the upgrade of railway stations and one of them that has not been done and is not on the list is Tralee railway station. There was talk for a number of years of opening the area up - it is a beautiful old limestone building, probably going back to the 1860s - and enhancing it with a plaza-type effect that would enhance the town centre. I am not convinced the Government is interested in town centres because if it was, it would have refurbished Tralee courthouse a long time ago rather than moving it somewhere else. Are there any plans to knock down the old wall at the railway station, open it up and have a plaza-type situation?

I will ask one more question. We have seen the comparison over many years. There were a lot of new light rail projects in Dublin in the first decade of this century but there does not seem to have been a pipeline of projects since. It has stalled somewhat. For example, if you compare Dublin to Madrid, Madrid added 200 km to its metro system over a 12-year period. Dublin began construction of light rail in 2001, and some 24 years later, there are only 42 km extra. The Finglas one is the only one before An Coimisiún Pleanála at the moment. It is important to have a pipeline of projects where you are scaling up and using the expertise as quickly as possible.

They are a few of the questions I would like answered, if possible, please.