Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos, ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil as an deis a labhairt ar an ábhar seo sa Teach anocht. I thank the Minister coming in to take the matter. It moves seamlessly on from the previous discussion about airports moving into this area of tourism.

My overall objective and a dream I would like to realise, which I share with many of my constituents and many people across west Cork, is to be able to get off the aeroplane in Cork Airport and walk or cycle down into west Cork, and continue the journey through west Cork either on foot or by bike. While it sounds a bit romantic and a bit of a dream, there is a lot of work done to date on realising that dream. There is an incredible community spirit locally in west Cork and we have a long history of tourism. It is a discussion I have had on numerous occasions with the present Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and with his predecessor Deputy Varadkar, as well as the Minister of State, Deputy Ring. I have tried to realise that dream of developing walkways, what are known as greenways - blueways, of course, are the same thing through water - across west Cork in conjunction with the local people and Cork County Council and its officials. I had a meeting recently with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, with a view to ensuring that funding is made available to Deputy Donohoe's department for this specific issue.

I held a public meeting in west Cork last Monday night week in the Emmet Hotel in Clonakilty. I did not do much advertising for it, it was just carried in the local newspaper a couple of weeks ahead of the date. The crowd was massive, but what was far more impressive was the enthusiasm of the people. It was infectious. The amount of work people had done was striking, like the west Cork cycling group, which has already designated a 200 km cycle around west Cork for which they are developing an app that can be downloaded to phones. Sean Collins of that club spoke in great detail about developing the app and making it available. Very little money would be needed to signpost that route. They also have a smaller route of about 26 km ready to go.

The Acting Chairman would be no stranger to west Cork himself, of course, and would be familiar with the very natural and existing beauty. I know the Minister, Deputy Donohoe has holidayed there on many occasions and has come back to me with glowing reports. That is no surprise to me. We have a natural infrastructure there, but we also had an infrastructure at one time that was taken from us. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done about that now. That is the railway line, of course, which also comes under the Minister's Department. The railway line was closed long before Deputy Donohoe's time, when the good people of west Cork were denied their railway. The line is still there, however, and Cork County Council has done a feasibility study and identified a 26 km walk all the way down it to Courtmacsherry. We hope to develop that as a greenway so people can walk, cycle, run or whatever takes their fancy on that route.

We also want to develop numerous other walkways and trails and it would remiss of me not to acknowledge the serious amount of work done by many groups in west Cork already. Drimoleague would be one, where David Ross and his people have developed a number of trails and walkways. There is beautiful scenery and the area is made for that kind of exercise.

In addition to talking about tourism and bringing tourists into west Cork to avail of these facilities, there is huge demand from the domestic market, from the local residents who want to get out and exercise. I noted driving into Dublin today that a massive number of people were out walking and running even though the weather was not that conducive to it. People are very conscious of their health and they want to get out, get active and get exercise. It is a great way to spend time with our children. The roads have gotten so much busier now, so people want to do this exercise off-road.

I am very passionate about this, and I believe money is starting to come into the Exchequer. We have to reinvest back into our futures. This ticks so many boxes on so many different levels - physical health and well-being, mental health and well-being, as well as the tourism boxes. There is a huge appetite from the local population for it as evidenced at the meeting.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I am not at all surprised to hear of the interest within the Clonakilty community and within Deputy Daly's constituency, because the roll-out of these greenways across the country has been hugely successful. I can see the demand for the roll-out of this kind of infrastructure really beginning to steadily build. Because of that there is a need for us to evaluate how we are going to do that, what money will be available and how they can be delivered in the best way. I am going to allude to some of the thinking on those areas in response to the Deputy's contribution.

As the Deputy is aware and has already acknowledged, last year my Department awarded €6.3 million under the National Cycle Network funding programme 2014-2016 to three local authorities for the delivery of greenways following a competitive process. A further 11 cycle-greenway proposals have been submitted by local authorities to share in the €200 million Government stimulus package for infrastructural development. Of that, €10 million was earmarked for the delivery of greenways. Seed funding was also provided to a number of local authorities in 2013 to progress planning and research for greenways. This funding amounted to €420,000.

At the moment, my Department has no plans to put in place a dedicated funding stream to provide funding to community groups to develop and deliver proposals such as those outlined by the Deputy as funding is fully allocated at the moment until 2016. As it stands I feel that the Leader programme serves this purpose although I am aware there are many demands being made on limited resources. I would recommend that local authorities and community groups continue working within their own resources where possible to progress plans for suitable projects so that when funding does become available they are in a position to apply for that funding. We might come back to that in a moment. It should be noted that the funding under the stimulus package last year was made to projects that were already on file with my Department following on from the awards under the National Cycle Network funding programme.

Offering our visitors an innovative tourism product has been key to growth in visitor numbers in recent years. The Government's commitment to sustainable transport and encouraging the development of world-class cycling and walking trails is an added incentive to visit Ireland. We must remain aware of the need to build greenways that appeal to local users, particularly where these greenways can help provide an alternative route to schools and work for children and families. The Deputy referred to that in his own contribution when he said that he noticed, when travelling to the Dáil, how many people were out and about on their bikes and on the footpaths despite the inclement weather, coming into their workplaces or going to school.

I understand that the National Trails Office in conjunction with stakeholders is working on a revised strategy for Irish trails that will be submitted to Government for approval later this year. This strategy, along with the Department of the Environment and Local Government's national countryside recreational strategy, which is also under review, will guide the Government's thinking on expanding the number of greenways, blueways and outdoor trails in the coming years.

It is important that, in preparing business cases and plans for greenways, communities and local authorities always keep in mind the end users. There is no point in seeking to put significant time, effort and money into projects that will not be used. The Field of Dreamsapproach - where "if you build it they will come" - will not necessarily work for greenways. People need to have access to them and the start and finish points must be carefully thought through.

I will refer back to some comments the Deputy made in my concluding comments.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. In essence we are all on the one hymn sheet here. We all know it is a great idea and the merits of it. I will not labour those points. Having spoken with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, I am confident that new funding will be available and new stimulus funding will be announced this year, and I think Deputy Donohoe's Department will be in a better place. I am confident, anyway; I hope I am not revealing any trade secrets there, but the Minister, Deputy Howlin, was certainly encouraging in his comments on that matter.

I hope the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport will be particularly proactive in this regard because it ticks two relevant boxes, that is, sustainable transport as well as the tourism element. Of course the domestic element is tied in with that as well.

I am delighted with the success of the greenway in Mayo. It looks to be a great success. The project got significant funding. However, in west Cork we do not have a Taoiseach or Minister of State with responsibility for tourism. I am keen to see our share of the spoils. Are we to get our share of the spoils? I hope the Minister will support me in ensuring that the good work done at grassroots level by community activists is brought to fruition. This work was evident at the meeting. Dozens of people contacted me by e-mail and so on afterwards. It is also evident on the part of Cork County Council, which has done considerable work on feasibility studies and identifying routes.

The old railway line in west Cork is an ideal route to be developed. However, we need funding from central government. I hope the Minister will take every opportunity to support us in this regard and to be cognisant of it from the start of the year. I hope we will be back in the House again with more positive news and announcements on this front during the year.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I assure the Deputy that I fully recognise the importance of the development of greenways and blue-ways throughout our island for the two reasons to which he referred. I wish to emphasise the sustainable transport aspect. In my visits to various points throughout the country I have been struck by the importance which local authorities attach to having their own sustainable transport strategies. In county after county I have met local representatives, directors of services or local authority chief executives. All point to the role of sustainable transport strategies in improving the lives of people in the areas they represent as well as helping its economic development.

I am very much aware of how greenways have already contributed to economic development and in particular the development of our tourism offering for domestic as well as international tourists. I have met experts in this area and they have made two points to me. First, the need for us to have more projects, in particular greenways of a certain calibre, throughout the country. Second, we need greenways of a particular length. This is because certain tourists are willing to travel to our country and spend money but they want to be able to use a greenway that will take many days of cycling to complete. This would allow them to spend time traversing the country and many different counties as opposed to a single or particular county. This is one of the reasons I am very supportive of the work that is under way - we have funding against it - for the Dublin to Galway greenway.

I hear clearly where Deputy Daly is coming from. He is looking for more of these facilities to be made available throughout the country, particularly in his county. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to confirm to Deputy Daly that the money is available now. However, we must continue planing in order that if and when funding becomes available in future we have projects that are ready to go. I assure Deputy Daly that I will be raising the need for this kind of planning and funding in these areas within Government.