Mr. Colmán Ó Raghallaigh:

I thank Senator Kyne for that commentary. I agree with everything he said.

I wish to underline that we have no difficulty with people building greenways. The only issue we have with the greenway business is the idea that it must be built on a railway. There is no sensible reason a railway has to be taken over just because it happens to be in public ownership. County Mayo has been to the forefront of the development of greenways in this country. I note that major greenways that have been successful are predominantly in areas of high scenic amenity. Regarding the development of our towns, the county councils in Mayo and Galway are prioritising planning to make sure housing is developed as close as possible to the centre of towns, which means railway stations will be in an ideal position to take people from those places to wherever they want to go, for example, if they want to go to Galway or work in Tuam, where a large number of people from Claremorris work.

What was said about the development of our towns bears out the thesis behind building a western rail corridor. It is about connectivity or creating an economic corridor. We support that. We are not prepared to concede that the development of a railway should wait any longer. It is down to the politicians to make the decision. They cannot just close their ears to the situation in the west of Ireland. Deputies from all parties understand the situation. The EU has told us and we need to listen.