Mark: At one level what you say is true: EU rules, etc. But there are other rules we have signed up to. One of them is Kyoto, and if you look at recent news reports you will see that (a) greenhouse gas emissions from transport in Ireland have increased at six times the rate for the rest of the EU; (b) the Irish Government (i.e. the taxpayer) faces payment of large fines or costs of pruchasing carbon emission rights as a result of this. In some cases the payment may be made by the industries concerned, but in the case of trucks the payment will not be made by the (FOFF) truckers, but by you and me. So having refused to treat trains and trucks consistently with respect to track costs, they are now going to pay good money for truck emission rights which they could have paid for rail-freight infrasctucture.
Crazy, and if EU rules really force then to do this then EU rules (not for the first time) are crazy too. As for the disposal of freightyard land: this is so dodgy on planning grounds (and personally I smell a very corrupt rat)
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