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

Obviously, that is a totally unsatisfactory customer experience. No one wants someone standing on the train all the way to Dundalk and all the various inconveniences that the Deputy listed. We need to improve the services and that is why we purchased the new ICR units. That is why we are buying and about to introduce the new battery electric trains so that we have greater capacity. That is not just on the Drogheda to Dundalk line; it is every part of the country. The Deputy will have seen recent announcements only last week of new early services to other parts of the country. There has been a significantly enhanced increase in rail capacity and in the number of passengers using it. The big fundamental issue on the northern line, and the real challenge going back to that question about €100 million, that does not include the four-tracking north of Connolly Station, which actually is the biggest constraint on the line. That project is in the greater Dublin area transport strategy which recommends it, the rail review recommends it and we will have to do it. It will cost several billion euro. It will be good for connecting Dublin to Belfast, not just Dundalk, and indeed we could go beyond, but that scale of investment is what is needed, if we are to be honest. If we are to be honest about transport debates, we need to show where the money for that is going to come from as well as everything else.

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