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

It will take a number of months.

As the Deputy suggested, all rail lines lead to Dublin and this review was initially looking at providing high-speed rail connectivity between Dublin, Cork and Belfast but we have extended it. We first looked at extending it to Derry or Limerick, or both. The conclusion of the western rail corridor analysis was that we needed to go wider and to look at the network effects. It concluded that we needed to look at whether there are underutilised lines that we could return into service and whether we could reverse the dramatic decline in rail freight that has occurred in the last 20 to 40 years. This will be done and at the same time we are looking at a review of the national development plan. The rail review will come after that. This is part of a Government which has deliberately set itself in the course that we will reverse the traditional spending ratio so that it will be 2:1 in favour of public transport rail-based systems over road because that is the correct strategic development for the west as well as for the rest of the country.

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