Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I would like to put on the record that I was involved in the development of the first greenway on the abandoned railway line - which is very different from a disused railway line - from Westport westward on the old Achill line. I support the development of greenways but one does not destroy one thing to develop another. That is vandalism. One should build the new thing in a way to preserve a useful asset. I am probably the only person in the room who travelled on the Harcourt Street railway line. It was the line from Harcourt Street in Dublin to Bray. We now know it as the green Luas line. It was abandoned and sold up and a good section of it was repurchased. It was thought, amazingly, when it closed in 1959, that there would never be enough development in Dundrum to hold not only the whole line but even part of it. I invite anybody now to go that route and look at how changed the world is in a way that was unforeseen in 1959. Even over a relatively short period - it has been open for 20 years - there were massive changes.

I recall when the study of need was done on the motorways by the National Roads Authority.

It sounds ludicrous now, but what these professionals proposed was to build a motorway from Dublin to Athlone and from Ballinasloe to Galway. However, they said that the bit between Ballinasloe and Athlone would be fine as single-carriageway road, on the existing alignment. The Government came in and had a bit of common sense about it and said that if it was being built that far to build the whole thing. I do not think anyone who travels that road would say that was a foolish decision. The point I am making is that Government is the ultimate arbitrator of all of this in terms of funding. Things can change and new governments can have new policies. Therefore, I welcome the rail strategy because it gives us long-term vision but it is not going to be a totally inflexible document that no government can touch or change over the coming years.

Can Mr. Kenny tell me how many NDPs back did the Foynes to Limerick reopening come on the radar for Iarnród Éireann?