Mr. David Franks:

The key problem on the Limerick-Galway route is that it is 20 miles longer than the road journey, so we are at a significant disadvantage. We have done a number of things to try to encourage people to use the route. From next week passengers will be able to book fares on the route online, which they cannot do now, and we will examine the train service options in our next timetable review, for which we are starting to plan.

The €50,000 spent on rebranding was part of the marketing spend and customer research identified that there was confusion around the Iarnród Éireann brands. The logo that emerged did not cost €50,000 but came out of the research that was undertaken for that sum. We have no intention of spending any money on rebranding other than as and when we do routine maintenance or repainting vehicles, for example.