Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am glad the Deputy is looking at the big picture and thinking long term. Hopefully that thinking goes into his submission to the strategic rail review, which is ongoing. The specific opening requirement was to look at high-speed rail, originally on the Dublin-Belfast-Cork line but subsequently extended to other cities. We are not ignoring it. The interim funding done in the last year will shave something like ten minutes off the Dublin-Cork journey time.

The Deputy is looking at a bigger, bolder initiative. I will give two or three personal thoughts in that regard. First, I was at a conference in Cork about ten years ago attended by a leading academic from the UK. I cannot remember his name but he was very impressive. He made a point concerning other cities, particularly in a country as lopsided as ours with so much development in Dublin. It was that investment in Cork, Limerick, Galway or Waterford does not undermine Dublin. It is not either-or but that we need to invest in the regional cities at scale. The real priority is building out as quickly as we can. That is why we put the European recovery funding into Cork metropolitan rail.