Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 11 April 2024

Committee on Public Petitions

Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Barry Kenny:

As I said earlier, it would be a full renewal, regardless. It would be a new track bed and new rails along the full alignment. Further time would not have a particular significant impact in that regard. We have been doing vegetation clearance and reasserting ownership. Going back to Deputy Ó Cuív, there was the CLÁR programme a number of years ago. There was recent funding to protect that alignment. There is a modest cost in going in and doing that type of thing from time to time to keep the alignment clear but there is no significant difference in capital costs, bar, of course, that capital cost always goes up the longer one leaves it.