Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are dealing with a company which, for the first time in many years, is seeing an increase in the number of passengers using its services. This is in line with what we are seeing not just on rail but also bus and Luas services. Public transport is benefiting from, and contributing to, economic recovery. The economic environment within which these decisions must be made is changing. Nonetheless, we are talking about a substantial amount of support that has been made available to the company. Despite the changes made and the reductions in the level of subvention funding, we are still talking about a PSO figure for Irish Rail alone of €118 million in 2014. This is a significant amount of money. To answer the Deputy's question directly, my intention is to bring further proposals to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications. I have requested that this be done next week.

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