Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Doocey for his presentation. We have been through this. I thank all those who have appeared before the committee, put forward their cases and discussed this issue. Deputy Harkin is right that we should not be having a competition and that we should be trying to focus on results. That is really what we want to try to do.

We are in a new age in which we are seeking to decarbonise our transport system. Most people in rural Ireland have to have a car; there is no other option for them to go to work or an appointment or do whatever they have to do. From that perspective, the development of rail and the redevelopment of old rail lines that have been discontinued are matters that the Government in Ireland and governments almost everywhere else in the world are considering so as to have more people using public transport that is reliable, safe and affordable. In that context, I am firmly of the view that we need to open the western rail corridor all the way to Sligo and beyond, and do so with urgency. I realise this might not be in the draft report that has been published. That said, there are many recommendations that have been in final reports for 40 years but have never been implemented, and there are plenty of recommendations that were never in reports that were implemented.

What really strikes me about all of this is that we do need to put greenways in place. We need to develop both leisure and infrastructure for tourism, etc. That needs to happen. At the same time, we have to recognise that the priority needs to be to develop critical infrastructure for the transport of people and goods. In that context, we need to be trying to put every effort into driving forward and opening the entire western rail corridor to develop the Atlantic economic corridor, as many people have discussed for the past two decades. We need an alternative to the imbalance that we have on the east coast to move some of that economic activity to the west and putting critical infrastructure in place is one of the keys, including linking centres of economic activity, such as Galway and Sligo.

I understand the frustration of people looking for decades at a piece of rail line, which has been lying there and nothing happening with it, and asking whether we could put a greenway way on that and whether that is not the best thing to do with in the meantime. While I absolutely understand where that comes from, we have to look at it in the context of the here and now. We are not where we were 40 years ago; we are here. We are in a situation where we are looking forward to developing appropriate public transport. The western rail corridor will be central to that and will be central to the redevelopment of the west. That is why we need to come together and push Government to ensure that we can deliver the corridor as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

I have a couple of questions in that context. Mr. Doocey mentioned that the Sligo aspect of it has the application in for the greenway and it is at stage 2. Following on from Deputy Harkin's question, in other circumstances how long has it taken to get through each stage? If we look at other examples where greenways have been proposed, approximately what kind of timeline is there to go from stage 2 to stages 3 and 4? I do not expect him to come down to the day or the hour. Approximately what kind of timeframe is there in respect of that?

In the context of developing rail infrastructure which we see happening in some places, one of which is the Foynes line from Limerick, what kind of timeline has been in place to do that from when it was proposed to where we are at now and where it will be when it is finished?