Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I attended a meeting of the transport committee last week because it was dealing with this specific matter. It had been furnished with a copy of the draft strategy. Its role as part of the consultation process was to discuss it. The NTA was at the meeting. We know how important this is and how important it is if a project is not included. I will give an example from my constituency. The DART+ project is to go to Maynooth. In actual fact it includes railway sheds. There are eight railway sheds to be constructed 350 m from the station in Kilcock. The train line will not go as far as Kilcock. The DART will go to Kilcock but people will not be able to get on a train there. The reason the NTA cannot amend the railway order is because Kilcock was not included in the previous project. There will have to be a separate process so that the current process will not be challenged. It shows the importance of having projects in the plan that make sense. I would have thought that wider involvement in the consultation process rather than restricted involvement would have been the way to go. Given that the strategy covers the period from 2022 to 2042, there is a value in making sure the plan is correct in the first instance and that we do not leave out very obvious measures that should be included.