Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

That is not the case. I have enunciated my priority to the Deputy but I am not going to start liberalising the market by suggesting to the market generally that there is a pot of taxpayers' money to be shovelled out to it willy nilly. That is not the route I am taking, and I hope the Green Party will support me in that. New and innovative ideas may well come forward which may involve new ways of looking at support for rail freight and, if so, I will be happy to consider them. However, at this point I am not going to make the opening gambit of market liberalisation by asking the market to come to us with a promise of a great deal of taxpayers' money. I will not approach the issue in that manner.

Regarding the active participation or pursuit by my Department or me in encouraging rail operators to the Irish market by setting out a framework, we are well ahead of some countries in embracing the directives. It is known that the directives take effect in two ways from 1 January 2006, just a few weeks away, and 1 January 2007. I have made it clear that the Government welcomes any additional carriers onto the rail network. Already there are indications of at least one company being interested.

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