Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are going to examine the possibility of extending the line from Pace to Navan in 2015 in the context of drawing up the national development plan for 2016 onwards. At present, it is just not affordable. Every rail line in the country, including the DART, requires a subvention and that subvention is very tight. Even if we were to find the capital required to build a new rail line, we could not afford to subvent it. In the context of shrinking budgets, I am struggling to keep the existing rail lines open. I am not in a position to support the building of new rail lines that would require an additional subvention that we do not have. The contrast with this is the Luas link-up in the city centre, which will not require an operating subsidy. When it is built, it will carry 10 million passengers and cover its own costs.

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