Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have questions for a couple of the witnesses. I will try to get through them as quickly as possible. The first is to Dr. O'Mahony. In his opening statement I think one of the very first sentences concerned the decommissioning of our rail system throughout the 20th century. Part of that happened where I am from. I am from west Cork and I represent Cork South-West. There was the west Cork railway, as it was called. It went from Cork through to Bandon and Enniskeane and on to Bantry and extended right out to the west, with branches off to Clonakilty, Courtmacsherry and other areas. It must have been an amazing thing to witness. However, if I were to stand up in the Dáil tomorrow and call for a return of the west Cork railway and ask for it to be rebuilt, I would be laughed out of the Chamber. A lot of the old rail lines - in this instance almost 100% - have been taken back into farmland, so the process of starting up a project such as this would be described as pie in the sky by many. My question for Dr. O'Mahony is this: how do we get to a point where this becomes a more real conversation that is not one of dreams and unachievable aspirations but one that may be achieved? As he has rightly stated, we have a road network but the N71 is not fit for purpose. In non-Covid times it is absolutely logjammed because of the amount of vehicular traffic on it. A railway would go a long way towards relieving that pressure and reducing carbon emissions. What is the best approach in that regard that would make this a more realistic proposal?

My next question is for Dr. O'Mahony as well. He mentioned roads and road building, but would he not agree that certain road infrastructure does have a place in terms of the vibrancy of our towns and villages? Mr. Cussen spoke a lot about "Eco Eye". It recently featured a piece on Clonakilty and how it was held up as a model for how things should be done in terms of public realm works and giving people back public spaces. Clonakilty happens to be my home town. One of the things that was mentioned-----