Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In the public consultation there have already been a number of submissions suggesting, as the Deputy has, the double tracking to Kilcock, and there may well be merit in that suggestion because it is a very large and growing town, with a large part of the population that commutes, and will still commute, even in post-Covid times. As the Deputy mentioned, a similar expansion of the section from Bray to Greystones has more complexities because of the geography, the tunnel and the coastal aspect. There may be mechanisms, for example, using short sections of double track, or others that could be used. We could increase the frequency to have a DART running every 20 minutes, using some of those interim measures.

There is a wider review that needs to be done of that entire route because of the need for coastal defences against sea erosion. That is a bigger issue for the southern route from Greystones, but the whole line requires significant review, arising, first and foremost, out of the coastal defence issues.

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