Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I feel like calling them Caroline, Gordon and Pat. Forgive me if I slip. Limerick and Waterford are my favourite Munster cities. Thus, the local authority representatives are very welcome here today. I congratulate both local authorities on the work they are doing. I am more familiar with Limerick. Other members have alluded to the great work on the acquisition of derelict and vacant properties. Limerick is pushing ahead of the other local authorities in the country and it should be commended on that.

I have raised with a number of the representatives before Limerick's middle- to longer-term ambition under Ireland 2040. There is an objective to bring our population up by 50% or 60%. We have exciting fresh plans with regard to the rail stuff. We mentioned Moyross for which a new train station has been announced. It changes the dynamic of how we think about Moyross. Incredibly good work has been done in the past 15 to 20 years in Moyross which is a wonderful community. It is certainly not without its challenges but I think the council has worked very well with the community to get it to a certain point. The Government is very happy to deliver this critical infrastructure. It changes the dynamic of how we develop places such as Moyross.

With regard to further ambition, Limerick is unique in the Irish context in that we have four rail lines coming in and out of it. Waterford does not have that. The rail line does not cross the River Suir but I believe it used to. The context is different in Waterford, Galway and Cork. Limerick has under-utilised infrastructure. It seems the way forward for Limerick is to build on that infrastructure. If we were trying to build or plan it now we would just say "forget about it" because it would cost billions of euro. However, the infrastructure is there and in the spirit of compact growth and developing more dense and livable cities, it makes considerable sense. As well as Moyross, there is Corbally, Parkway, Ballysimon, Lisnagry, Raheen, Mungret and, pushing out to my Limerick colleague's territory, there is Patrickswell, Adare, Askeaton and Foynes.