Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Two things are happening, as I said in the previous response. The draft all-island rail review will be published in July for the purposes of environmental assessment and is to be finalised in the autumn. Separately, we will be commencing a review of our national ports policy. We will be publishing an issues paper on that in the coming weeks which will set out the trajectory on capacity for our ports. Rail will play an important role as part of our wider ports policy review. Waterford Port and other ports will be an important component of that. The growth of Dublin Port is projected to continue. We are also cognisant of the overall growth of the economy and the population increases we are seeing in our regions. We have opportunities for increased growth of rail freight and Iarnród Éireann has an important policy on trying to strengthen that over the coming period. Between the strategic rail review and the review of our national ports policy, we will see positive opportunities for Waterford Port and other ports in the coming period.

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