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

As I said, now that we have some money we have invested in the railways. There has been a 35% increase in subvention in three years. Very few semi-State or public bodies have had a 35% increase in subvention in the past three years. Between 2008 and 2016, an extra €5 billion was invested in CIÉ companies, the bulk of which, some €3.7 billion, went to Iarnród Éireann even though it does not accommodate the bulk of passengers. Very many more people travel by bus than by train in Ireland.

I agree it will be useful to convene the stakeholders' forum and I will speak to the Minister, Deputy Ross about that. It would also be useful to publish the rail review. However, I do not think for a second that publishing the rail review or convening a stakeholders' forum will resolve this dispute. This is a pay dispute. Ultimately, it is about salaries, wages and money.

We are aligned on one thing, namely, that we need to invest more in public transport and make sure that our railways are safe. We need to improve line speeds and buy more carriages so that we can have a better quality of train service for passengers. We need a safer service and one which helps us to deal with climate change. That means the vast majority of additional revenue which goes into companies, whether through subvention, fares or additional passengers, should go into improving services and making them safer and better, rather than into pay increases.

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