Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This week, the Western Rail Trail campaign will present a petition of 26,000 signatures of voters in the western region to the Committee on Public Petitions and the Ombudsmen, advocating for the development of a greenway on the currently disused railway line between Athenry and Sligo. The serious fear among the members of that campaign and among the 26,000 who signed the petition, 9,000 of whom are in County Galway, is that the line on which we are advocating for the development of a greenway will remain decaying and will be bringing no benefit whatsoever to the western region as a whole.

We saw the recent publication of the all-island rail review, which sets out the development of some rail infrastructure on that line. We are saying that until that happens, it could and should be developed as a greenway. I ask the Taoiseach to engage with his colleague, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in particular, to advocate for exactly that to happen to safeguard this public infrastructure in public ownership until such time as it can be developed for a rail service.

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