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

That does not come from any Government direction or an inclination on its part not to support the north side over the south side. The Deputy mentioned the active travel fund. I remember talking to an engineer who said he had not seen a previous example where pretty much everything Cork had looked for we had been able to deliver. Cork has been ambitious and a bit ahead of the curve in some of these areas. What I said to the council when I met it was that if it comes with good projects, there will be an open door to trying to get them delivered and built. Critically for north Cork, under the funding for this year, spending on Kent Station will be provided to create the new Mallow-to-Midleton rail service. We will effectively build a DART for Cork with new stations on the north side, in the likes of Blarney, Monard, Tivoli and Blackpool. Those stations will be selected. That will transform north Cork. As for the European funding, we deliberately said that north Cork is where that new rail infrastructure should go. There is no shortage of desire to transform the north of Cork city.

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