Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I dtosach báire, caithfidh mé a rá go bhfuil mé an-buíoch do Anne Graham, Hugh Creegan, Michael Nolan agus Peter Walsh. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil siad dáiríre. They are totally committed to doing the best they can from a Dublin and a transport perspective. I take that fully on board. We have met in this committee before and the committee and I are very appreciative of their efforts and commitment. Everybody here has mentioned the schools, Home Farm and Na Fianna. There is strong support for metro north. We all believe that is the way to go. Dublin is the only capital city in Europe in which there is no train link to the airport whatsoever. It has to be done. I did a little research on this and the Government was first speaking about this back in 2005. As Deputy Ellis stated, he is aware of 30 or more consultations on this and God knows how much it cost. I am sure it cost millions. I suggest that extending the time would be helpful but extending time must be ring-fenced. It has to be stated that an extra two weeks, four weeks or whatever will be given. That would mean an awful lot to the communities and the sporting organisations to give them a chance to get their thoughts together. From the Chair's perspective, I think it was a fantastic idea to look at offering some sort of financial support to these organisation to put a case in place. I thought it was a brilliant idea.