Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I accept and understand that. A couple of weeks ago the senior Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, was in Sligo and he told us that he wants to put a greenway on top of the part of the rail line running past Knock Airport from Charlestown to Collooney. It is part of the western rail corridor which is intact; the railway has briars and bushes overgrowing it and it needs to be cut back and cleaned out. We all know that greenways are important and are part of what we need to be developing in many areas. However, we should not be putting them on top of key pieces of rail infrastructure that will be needed into the future. We need to keep them separate and apart from whatever other development we have around leisure or tourism. This is for people to be able to get transport. People from Sligo who have to go to hospital in Galway because cancer services have been taken away from Sligo hospital are not going to go on a bicycle. They need to have a service. The Government must re-examine this. All of the decisions coming from the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, or the Green Party element of the Government are all-of-government decisions and they need to be dealt with in that way.

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