Ms Anne Graham:

I will start the response in terms of the NTA. I will focus on public transport in rural areas, namely, Local Link services. There is a mixture. We will still retain the demand responsive services required in very isolated rural areas where there is not necessarily a demand for scheduled services. They feed into scheduled services so that we can ensure there is a connection between a very remote rural area and more scheduled services, and onwards to even bigger scheduled services. Making those connections is what connecting Ireland is about, as well as ensuring that we have those connections.

In terms of the design principles around connecting Ireland, it is about having a connection to the next local centre in a reasonable time and at a reasonable frequency throughout the day to the extent that people could possibly envisage living without a car in parts of rural Ireland. That will not necessarily help the 20% of people who live in very isolated rural areas. We hope that with demand responsive public transport services, community car schemes and rural hackney schemes, which are also supported through the NTA, we can build connections around rural Ireland that will allow people to live independently without the need for a private car while still being able to access the services they need. The defining principle is that all of those features would be fully wheelchair accessible. I will ask Mr. Creegan to comment on the rail side of things.