Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Meath County Council and the people of Meath are doing everything right with this project. They are putting their hands up and preparing plans. The focus on Dunshaughlin and Navan for compact and transport-led development is entirely consistent with existing policies. The people of Meath, the local authority and the representatives are doing the right things and they should be rewarded for that if the policy means anything.

On the selection of the route, there was an argument initially that this project was designed to fail because the proposed route went west of Dunshaughlin rather than east towards Ratoath and Ashbourne. Will that be considered? On the appraisal framework, the Minister heard from the Joint Committee on Climate Action about how we assess these major infrastructure projects. Is that being developed? That would benefit the Navan rail project.

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