Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On the first matter, without going into detail, the Government's programme on rail transport shows that €177 million has been invested in the supply of new rail cars this year. Most of these are now coming on stream and various discussions have been taking place since 2000 to make provision for them. Those discussions were concluded last January and I understood everything was resolved, but clearly there is a small group of people who do not agree. Before the action was taken yesterday, there were scheduled meetings to take place between the official union representatives and the Department of Transport. From the point of view of the programme for Government, I hope the implementation of a large capital expenditure programme to improve public transport, with mainline rail, the national work on the safety of the lines and the work on a number of rail routes such as the Kildare route will be allowed to proceed speedily without unnecessary disruption. Such improvements are for the benefit of the customers.

Regarding marine matters, Deputy Kenny is aware of the difficulties in Killybegs. During the lifetime of this Government and the last one we invested major capital expenditure to finish work on the pier and the infrastructure in the Killybegs area. There are some difficulties with which the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources will deal, but from a Government perspective we put in much needed facilities that were sought for 20 years in terms of marine capital infrastructure. I do not know for how long the current problems will continue. Some serious matters are involved, but they are not related to the programme for Government because, to the best of my knowledge, the capital expenditure programme for Killybegs is concluded.

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