Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would make one point. At the end of this year, another rail review report will be presented to us. Either we trust in that process of deliberation, undertaken by people we all agree are experts in the area of rail and structured development, or we do not. They will arrive at firm conclusions, one hopes, about how we sweat the asset, to use a phrase that has been said repeatedly. We then need to make decisions. We do not need to be sitting around this table in ten years determining what happens to the western rail corridor and how to serve the towns and villages it passes through. It is incumbent on each and every one of us to take responsibility for that and not push it down the road for yet another rail review. We need to make a decision, by the end of 2023 at the latest, as to how exactly to use this asset for the benefit of the people who live along the route, and for the wider region of the west of Ireland. Indecision and kicking the can down the road are not acceptable and it will be shameful if that happens again.