I want to raise the issue of the lack of services for rail commuters from Longford travelling to Dublin. In the evening time in particular, there are only three trains - 4.50 p.m., 5.50 p.m. and 6.57 p.m. - that service Longford and beyond. There is no rail service from Longford to Sligo after 7 p.m. We have a growing number of commuters travelling to Dublin. We want to take cars off the road, but that means we need to put services place. However, when I contact Irish Rail, it acknowledges that it is purchasing 285 new carriages for the greater Dublin area. We need to look at investment across the entire network. If we are going to look for more people to use public transport, we need to put those services in place. On that route in particular, there is no service beyond Mullingar for the rest of the north west of Ireland after 7 p.m.

I will engage with Iarnród Éireann on this. A lot of expansion is happening and there are a lot of costs attached to it, investment required and so on like that. On the specifics of what the Deputy has raised, I will communicate to Iarnród Éireann his concerns in terms of the lack of frequency of such services.