Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and our guests for coming in today. I love sitting back and listening to all the arguments here. I have to say their case is a no-brainer. We have had the same. I am from east Cork. From Midleton to Cork city, it took us 15 years of lobbying to even get the train back there. It is one of the busiest lines now. From Midleton to Youghal, the greenway is almost ready to open.

I agree with all the speakers, including Deputy Martin Kenny. The language at the time was, of course, everybody wanted the railway back but I am a realist. When Ms Brennan stated, "The closed railway line running north of Claremorris to Charlestown and on to Sligo is simply not going to reopen anytime soon." I noted she is a realist. Ms Brennan is correct, and I agree with it. We had 600 people in Youghal at a meeting one night, and I laid out the reality to them. I told them it that it took us so many years to get the railway line back into Midleton. It took over €20 million in development charges to get that railway line back in. I stated that with the lack of industry in Youghal at the time, nothing would pay for it to go back in but the possibility of the greenway will boost tourism. They had the Ironman for four or five years at the time. With the footfall that comes with that, we have already had four shops and two restaurants opened, and the greenway has not even opened yet. I stated that it is on a lease and the possibility of putting the line down is possible. The possibility is mentioned. Funnily enough, I wrote to TII and the NTA probably six times in the past three years to get a park-and-ride in regard to Youghal and train station in Midleton for connectivity in the meantime. The response was they were not doing it. I replied stating that they were not opening the railway. Then the strategy report comes out in which the park-and-ride is mentioned four times and the railway link from Youghal to Waterford is mentioned six times, but that is a long way away. I told those at the meeting to be realists and make use of what they had.

I am well used to the one in Waterford that was mentioned here. It is absolutely flying, and there are the other benefits of it. People will argue the point that it is a waste of money. It is cost neutral to put the line back down.

As the Chair said, the guests make an amazing case here. One cannot argue with it. They presented the facts, but there is a line in our job where sometimes we have to listen to two sides of the story and somewhere in the middle is the truth. I would be siding with the Chair and agreeing that we should bring in the local authorities, Irish Rail, TII and the whole lot.

I ask the guests to be patient. I am here seven years and we have other petitions to go through after this today. In the seven years, it is the first time I have ever seen somebody get a result out of any committee, but for it to write back and thank them for it.

We do not play party politics here because this is the "lastchance.com" for any citizen. We are all citizens of the State. We might be elected representatives but we are still citizens of the State. I know where they are coming from, with the children and the positive mental health and the benefit of it.

We have the best country in the world. We have the best people in the world. Covid has shown us what kind of scenery we have in our own country because people did not even realise what was at their own backdoor.

As I said, we will work collectively here to get the answers. Let us get the facts and the answers, and say what they need. I suppose we will concentrate on Mayo. I am not picking on any local authority but Mayo seemed to be the stumbling block here. We will ask why it put that into the development plan and why that cannot be amended. I have worked on county development plans and they can be amended. Let us have it out. Let us bring it in here as well. Hopefully, in a short period of time, we will go away with an answer that we are all happy with and where at least one can say that is the final stop and we know where we are going or where we are not going. It is, as they said, a case of making the best of what one has now in the short term, and plan for the long term later on.