Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

That is good to hear. If one is at the wrong end of the train, one cannot get a cup of tea because the trolley has run out of water. These are small examples. The staff of Iarnród Éireann are the best in the world and very accommodating but there are many issues that need to be tackled.

There is a need for the rail service to be upgraded and increased investment in rail to meet the economic needs of the country. Anybody who read the series run by The Irish Times recently on commuting, now a feature of many people's lives, will have noted the constant references to people's desire to use rail to get to work. Those who can do but a huge number cannot. Rail should be used much more in order to move our labour force around and ensure it is not spending 12 hours a day travelling, working and travelling home again. This has negative implications for their local areas, in which they are rarely present, and family life. I meet commuters all the time and they are under huge personal pressure. It is true that this has happened over a small number of years and it would have been difficult for any economy to have planned for it but rail can and should play a huge role in ensuring our workforce gets around in a more efficient fashion.