Sean Barrett (Independent)

Last week Goodbodys and AECOM published a review of the Irish railway network, although dated October 2011. It shows up a serious problem that we spent €559 million on putting in place four railway tracks to Kildare, that the passenger business was down by 25% and the freight business, between 2003 and 2009, was down 61%. This is another example of the reason capital projects should be independently evaluated - this one appears to have continued with the press releases up to 2009. We continued to put in €595 million to double the capacity to cater for 25% fewer passengers and 61% less freight.

We need to get a grip on the weaknesses in the Departments of Finance and Transport in appraising projects. It is strange that this project was allowed to go through while GAA referees are being pursued for €13 or whatever they get, for refereeing a match, to try to remedy the national finances. If we had proper project appraisal we could save much more money. This one appears to have been unnecessary to double the capacity of what has proven to be declining activity in the past four years.