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

I can see by being a Dublin person by birth and upbringing but living in the west how the north west has lagged behind in terms of motorways, railways, etc. One of the things that is of major concern to me, as a Deputy representing Galway West, is that we see every day people coming to University Hospital Galway from counties Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim and all the way down the coast. For them, because the hospital is the centre of excellence for the west, travel is onerous and a lot of them would like to travel by rail where there is comfort. A rail travel option is denied them because to get the train to Galway, you have to take the train to Dublin and come back down again. Similarly, the University of Galway is the biggest university. There are other universities with the development of the technological universities but the University of Galway is by far the biggest university with the biggest number of choices. Again, what we are seeing is that an ever-increasing number of students want to be able to get home. Some students only spend five days in their lodgings, some students only do two days in their lodgings because they commute in various ways, and some students do long-term commutes. We live in a very uncertain world and in a world where plans can become redundant very fast. Again, it would have been wiser to hold the railway line because experience would tell us that when Iarnród Éireann opens the line up to Claremorris, it will far exceed expectation.

Does Mr. Kenny agree there will be a likelihood that some Government will say we have gone in for a penny, so let us go in for a pound and finish this whole section of line? It is one section of a line. Also, with possession being nine tenths of the law and if the land was handed over to a greenway, there would be a lot of arguments against the cost, disruption and all the rest if we then had to rip up the greenway and put in the railway line. I believe we should put greenways on a separate alignment, which might be a parallel alignment, and preserve rail lines. I ask because the realities of what we are planning for rail now would not have been dreamt of in the early part of Mr. Kenny's career, and certainly it certainly would not have been dreamt of in the early part of my career, which goes back a good bit further. Does Mr. Kenny agree it would be better and cheaper to develop the greenway but in a way that would not in any way prejudice a Government in the next five years going on from Claremorris to Collooney, which would link up Knock Airport and Sligo town as growth areas in the north west and stimulate the growth there further? Also, as climate action, etc., becomes more important, rail will become a key part of the delivery of climate targets.