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

I am very familiar with the issue, as the Deputy can imagine, because people may start their train journey in Maynooth and Leixlip, but shortly after that the train arrives full in my constituency in Clonsilla, Coolmine, Castleknock, Navan Road Parkway and Hansfield. Passenger numbers on those train lines have now exceeded where they were before the financial crisis began, which is good on one level because it shows that people are working again, but obviously we are now facing the kinds of traffic problems we saw before the crisis with congestion on our train lines. This matter will be considered as part of the ten-year investment plan which we intend to publish in the next couple of weeks with a view to upgrading those train lines significantly through additional carriages, electrification and car parks. As is the case with all these things, it is not possible to do them quickly. We would have done them four or five years ago had we not been broke, but unfortunately we were.

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