James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----I am conscious of that and want to thank him for it. It is a sign of a decent human being and someone who is committed to public service. Our views on how to run the country and get things functioning from a transport perspective may not always be the same, but I appreciate all the Minister has done and the impact he has made. I wish him and his family well in the future and have no doubt he will not be withdrawing from public life entirely.

I move to a public transport issue in my constituency. The Minister may know from his visits to east Cork and his familiarity with the area that we have exciting plans with the CMATS. We have often discussed what is happening Midleton to Mallow and Cobh around the connectivity that has been done. It is enormously positive work. There is a huge draw in the conversation about how people feel this could be improved upon is the lack of a rail connection to Youghal. Youghal is my home town. It is a town that has had very significant economic difficulties. People locally feel abandoned by government policy, though we are seeing the roll-out of the greenway there at present. As one of the Minister’s final acts in the position, could he look at the potential for feasibility studies to be completed on what it would take to connect Youghal back up to the Midleton rail line. There is an existing rail line in the ownership of Irish Rail. That was a stipulation when the agreement was down with Cork County Council for the current greenway. I want to get an insight into whether some money could be put aside in the forthcoming budget to analyse what the cost of the reintroduction of the Youghal to Midleton rail line would be.

Some of the estimates I have heard are approximately a quarter of a billion euro but we will never know until a professional study is done. The reason I ask the Minister this is that he knows that we have very significant traffic locally. I have worked with the Minister to try to get the N25 upgraded. These works are at an advanced stage in the hope that a design consultant will be appointed in the autumn of this year.

I have to respect what my constituents want and the desire to see the return of the rail line to Youghal is enormously important to people in the town. It is enormously important to people who live in the vicinity of the town, whether in Castlemartyr, Killeagh, Mogeely or other locations that are dotted along the rail line further up towards Midleton. I seek an insight from the Minister. Could the Minister see if funding could be provided only to give a costing on what it would take and what would involved in that project?