Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will start by thanking the Minister for his visit to Cavan and Monaghan some months ago. He knows, even though I have only been a Member for a short time, that one of my bugbears is the lack of public transport. The Minister knows from his visit to County Cavan that we have the basic necessary infrastructure in place. There are rail lines which took traffic and carriages from Navan to Kingscourt in their day. That basic infrastructure is there and, like my colleagues, I was disappointed with the Government's Project Ireland 2040. Taking advantage of that infrastructure is not being planned for over the next 20 years and that is a missed opportunity.

I congratulate Deputy Eamon Ryan for bringing forward this motion because we need to be more proactive and vocal about climate change but the basic essence of climate action is to take our cars off the road. I travel from Cavan to Leinster House daily and I know people are stuck in their cars. It reminds me of the days of the Celtic tiger. There is one person in each car and they are stuck in traffic from Clonee all the way to the city centre.

We have a fabulous motorway but it ends at Whitegate on the Cavan-Meath border. Cavan and Monaghan seem to be completely forgotten when it comes to public transport. We have no motorway and the Government does not appear to be planning for that all-important, east-west link corridor. Transport facilities are essential parts of the economic prosperity of my constituency and I implore the Minister not to overlook the area in any investment and planning for 2040. Brexit is looming and the Border counties will, by their nature, be exposed to that. We have not come out of recession. That is the reality for us and for business in Cavan and Monaghan. We really need investment in infrastructure.

I thank the Minister for his visit to Cavan and Monaghan. I hope it will be the first of many as we carry out more research and plan for investment in a rail line to Kingscourt.

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