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

I take this opportunity to invite the Minister to walk the stretch of rail line with me from Navan to Kingscourt, although perhaps not in its entirety. As I said, there is incredible work being done in developing it as a greenway, but I believe we must be ambitious. We must have a vision of reopening that as a rail line to Kingscourt because the potential it has to open the Border region is huge. A large proportion of the population in Cavan and Monaghan commutes to Dublin. If we are serious about getting traffic off the roads, that is the way to do it. I know the Minister wholeheartedly believes that, but the local authorities and Iarnród Éireann need the support of the Government to have that imagination and ambition and lay down the plans. Let us not allow these rail lines to rot into dust. We have a real opportunity. There is a climate emergency. There is no need for me to tell the Minister that because he has been preaching it to us for long enough. Let us do something about it. Let us have that ambition and reopen that rail line.

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