Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)

I do get the point. A number of our rail cars and rail lines have the facilities on the trains. I have looked, and I have asked Iarnród Éireann and the NTA to explore other options, including the option Deputy Daly has articulated here today. I am hopeful this will bear fruit shortly. Deputy Daly has asked this question regularly, as have Government colleagues. I understand the position. I will revert once the discussions have concluded and we have options that would be affordable and would make sense whereby we are not paying out more money through the PSO when those moneys could be used to provide additional services. Deputies here understandably look for additional services because more and more people are using public transport. There were 330 million passenger journeys last year. There has been an increase already year on year of approximately 10.5%. People are responding to the better services that are there but we still need to work to improve them.

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