Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Connor for his kind words at the start. Sometimes it feels like you are at your own funeral when you hear nice, kind words said about you. It is pleasant and very much appreciated.

I understand the case the Deputy is making for an extension of the rail line to Youghal. Youghal is a spectacular beautiful town but which, maybe, has seen better days. It needs to get back on the up and it will and, in many ways, is. The reality is, and I ask Mr. Ebrill to correct me if I am wrong, the extension to Youghal is not in the strategic rail review. I was asked earlier on, for example, about an extension of a rail link to Shannon. It is merely one example of the huge number of projects which are in the review. To be honest, being about to complete the rail review, up North as well as South, I do not believe that will be amended. There are other examples where people are looking for rail lines to be reopened or built. Collooney to Claremorris is another example. I would say the same to them as to Deputy O'Connor. Particularly because it is an all-island process but also because it has been two-and-a-half years in the doing, I do not see the review being revised at this stage. In the absence of the extension to Youghal being either in that or in the NDP, I cannot imagine the costings would be that different to what the Deputy suggested. It is expensive to reintroduce a rail line even where one has got in effect an existing way leave with the building of the greenway. I would hate to give a false promise to the people of Youghal that that is immediately deliverable. It is deliverable in a longer-term timeframe because, as I said, the greenway is there. If a future Government decides that we would have to look at it and reintroduce it, it would be easier than if that greenway was not built. However, our first priority should be to make that greenway work.

Youghal has always benefited from being a significant tourist town and I am very interested in terms of how can we make that work. As it happens, and not in any way undermining the case the Deputy is making for the bigger investment, I had a meeting this week with the pathfinder officials who are charged with delivering a greenway from Dungarvan to Youghal, because that is one of the pathway projects I had a particular interest in. I would be interested to hear the Deputy's view on this. Not to undermine the argument the Deputy makes for a rail line, I argued for them that we should be looking at something spectacular into Youghal at the point of the ferry crossing from the Ardmore side in Waterford across to the town. In my mind, it would be a transformative project for the town in the same way that the reopening of the greenway to Dungarvan, because of the likes of the aqueduct, is so special. We need something special coming into Youghal to boost tourism. I have asked the officials to go away and look at that project because there would be an issue as to whether one could get to some of the yachts or other boats that go up as far as the existing bridge closer to Lismore and they will come back to me with specific proposals on that, which I was particularly interested in.

I would love to have the financing and the mechanisms to extend rail lines everywhere but, in truth, because of the scale of the commitments, Cork metropolitan rail alone, with the money we need to invest in Midleton, in Carrigtwohill, in Glantane and in the new stations coming around towards Cobh, will cost in the order of €1 billion.