Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

As Deputy Mitchell knows, I agree with her on this issue, and I find it deeply frustrating. We made a large investment in the rail infrastructure, and there is no question of decommissioning it. Perhaps Deputy Mitchell is referring to some of the rolling stock issues. I have engaged on this issue and many Deputies, primarily Deputy Mitchell, have contacted me on this issue. I have tried to impress my view upon the chairman of the CIE group, that it is in all our interests to have the maximum amount of freight carried on our rail network.

I do not take my evidence exclusively from Iarnród Éireann. As I may have stated publicly, I saw the experience of the substantial international container shipping company, Norfolk Shipping Line. It approached Iarnród Éireann and persuaded it to put on extra trains to deliver container traffic from the west of Ireland into Bellvue Port, which happens to be in my constituency, but that is beside the point. I encouraged this as I saw it as a precursor to the private and public sectors working together.

Recently the private sector company stated that, in spite of the good work done by Iarnród Éireann fulfilling all the criteria required, the project failed to succeed. Individual customers would not use rail services because it was more cost effective to use roads, which came as a great disappointment to Norfolk Line and Iarnród Éireann. There was no block to putting the system in place.

I make it clear to the House that my Department is open to discussions with any interested operator and we would like to hear from anybody who thinks they can make this work. It is simply not cost effective for an individual company to get a container to its location, load it, get it delivered from that point to a rail station, load it on to a train, deliver it to the rail head or shipping head and then unload it. The evidence I have been given is that rail freight works on huge numbers over long distances. I am not using that as an excuse. I am trying to convey to the Deputy that I have tried to acquaint myself with the problem. It is a nut we would all like to crack but I do not intend to decommission any of the rail line currently in place. The market opening may encourage some of the people in the private sector who said they would operate trains to come forth.

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