Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The railway package has been broken into different aspects. Initially, we are dealing with safety and interoperability. It sets European standards which over time would require us to upgrade our railways.

We have tried to avoid committing Ireland to European standards that would be expensive to implement but would not make any sense. One example is the European rail traffic management system, ERTMS, which is a European-type signalling system. It makes sense if one is driving a train from Berlin to Paris that France and Germany should have the same signalling system, but it does not make sense that we should have to put in the same system, because it is not possible to drive a train to Ireland. We are aiming for a common-sense approach. It has been recognised that Ireland has an isolated network and that things are different here. The railway track gauge is narrower in Ireland. Even if one could drive a train from Britain to Ireland, the tracks would have to be changed. Our general approach is to request to be exempted from some obligations that do not make sense on an island.