Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Aughey. It is good to have him at the meeting. I applaud his entrepreneurial spirit and the work he does.

I do not have many questions but want to contribute to state the idea is very exciting. In a general sense, the future is with rail. Rail is coming back into fashion and will have to do so. It would be interesting if Mr. Aughey, who, I presume, is using international data, could flesh out further his view that towns would grow exponentially if the high-speed railway were up and running in that it would cause urban growth and increase the population to justify itself. That is the main point on which I believe Mr. Aughey would need to convince those in the private sector.

I presume the European Investment Bank and various bodies of that kind would be interested in the project. I was distracted for some of Mr. Aughey's presentation so I do not know whether he alluded to sources of funding at EU level. He might comment on how he is being received. It would be no harm for us, as practitioners of politics, to know what sort of vibe he is getting in general from our respective Administrations. It is certainly exciting. I can certainly see from lived experience that the region needs a fillip. The entire Border area has suffered.

It is a very interesting proposition and a good project. The future is with rail and it will have to be grasped on that basis. The only issue now is to establish the business case in all instances. Senator Martin referred to the Kingscourt-Navan rail line. Several such lines will have to come back into focus in the future.