Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

How we have appraised infrastructure projects historically has not been appropriate because we have done so in a very narrow way and applied a short-term view. We often do not take the wider and longer-term benefits of infrastructure into account and we have got it wrong time and again. Projects such as the western rail corridor will not add up if we look at them through a narrow lens. There are multiple broad and long-term benefits of projects such as the western rail corridor. That project, in particular, is a force multiplier.

Phase 1 of the corridor, from Limerick to Galway, has been completed. It made a mockery of forecasts and the traditional analyses we applied to these infrastructure projects. We need to consider this project which, as I said, will be a force multiplier for the Minister and his Cabinet colleagues. We need to take this project seriously because it will open up the west of Ireland for development. I want to put that project on the Minister's radar.

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