Overcrowding on the Midleton-Cork rail line is reaching farcical levels. For a prolonged period, peak-time services have been left operating with just two carriages. This morning, a constituent told me the train was again dangerously overcrowded, with the driver on one journey having to get out to stop commuters boarding at Glounthaune and Little Island. My colleague, Councillor Eamonn Horgan, has been raising this issue over the past year. Irish Rail accepts that peak-time services are overcrowded but says there are no spare carriages available.

The Minister's own figures show Ireland collected €32.9 billion in corporation tax last year. Why is his Department so tight-fisted with the basics while revenues of that scale are coming in? How can we have so little to show for such extraordinary resources that these Cork commuters are still being packed into two-carriage trains just to get to work and college? People in Youghal are in a much worse predicament, with no rail and a shambles of a bus services that would drive you to despair.

As I said to Deputy Brennan, the capital investment in transport is due to significantly increase in the next number of years. If one takes the Cork area commuter rail programme, which the Deputy did not mention, for example, there will be significant progress in the wider Cork area over the next number of months and, indeed, the next number of years, where people will see improvements in public transport, in particular. The work we are doing with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is to ensure the bus service complements the significant enhancement of the commuter rail programme.

We are absolutely clear that, through our fiscal plan, we want to prioritise infrastructure investment in public transport and our wider transport system to ensure we reduce congestion and improve the commuter experience for many people who use public transport. With the progress being made by Irish Rail, such as the double tracking between Glounthaune and Midleton and other progress across the Cork area commuter rail plan, people will see the improvements over the period ahead.