Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Project Ireland 2040 looks at the next 22 years. We are thinking about the longer term. We are planning for a population increase in the west of Ireland as well.

This increase will not just be Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway, we also want it to happen in the west and the north west. It will not happen, however, without infrastructure and connectivity. There appears to be a view that this is a case of if we build it, they will come. It is a chicken-and-egg scenario. We are always being told that we do not have the population base or the level of demand required, but we will never get that without connectivity.