Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for Transport for being in the Chamber for this debate. I welcome the significant funding that was granted last week for greenway projects throughout the country and, in particular - being parochial about it - the fantastic funding given for my own constituency of Kerry. It is good that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is also here. The funding is very much appreciated and builds on work in recent years to get the network going in north Kerry, between Tralee and Fenit and between the Limerick border and Listowel. Funding was also allocated for the south Kerry greenway. On Thursday, we saw the fantastic decision by An Bord Pleanála to grant permission for that project to proceed. We hope it will now go ahead, after many years of planning, design, hearings and everything else.

I have no doubt that it is going to be a world-class, iconic greenway.

This is going to be extraordinarily special. It is a 32 km route from Glenbeigh to Reenard, which overlooks Valentia Island. It follows part of the Farranfore to Valentia Harbour railway line which initially opened in 1885, when it reached as far as Killorglin, before being extended to its full length in 1893. It ran until 30 January 1960. The line has now been closed for almost as long as it was open. I hope the great renaissance this greenway represents will be symbolic of a great future for that part of Iveragh and of Kerry. From where I live on the Dingle Peninsula, I can look across to Castlemaine Harbour and Dingle Bay, where the railway line used to run. The scenery is beautiful and outstanding. There are a number of outstanding features along the line such as way covers and brilliant viaducts, including the one at Gleesk in Kells and the one over the water in Cahersiveen. There are also wonderful tunnels that weave in and out of the mountainside overlooking Dingle Bay. It really will be world class.

We have now completed the phase involving An Bord Pleanála. I hope there will be no further reviews of the project or any judicial reviews sought. I call on everybody to unite behind this project for the greater good. The next challenge will be to find the funding to complete the project. More than €5 million of Government funding has already been committed, comprising more than €4 million in 2014 and the further €1.4 million which was announced last week and which is most welcome. Approximately €15 million more will be required to ensure the project is completed. With regard to the timeline, if that funding is provided very soon, the project could be fully completed by the end of 2022. That would be very welcome because this area of south Kerry really needs help.

When the railway line was completed back in the 1890s, it was a massive economic catalyst for the area. In a similar way, this greenway will be a great economic catalyst for that part of Kerry. I am not overstating the case when I say that it will be world class and iconic. It will be extraordinarily special. There does not seem to be funding available immediately for this particular project, however. It is so special that it requires a response and specific funding from Government as a one-off. It is that unique and world class. I ask the Minister to do everything he can to ensure the funding is provided as soon as possible so that the project can begin as soon as possible, and with it, the recovery in that part of south Kerry.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy for the opportunity to address this issue. I very much welcome the decision of An Bord Pleanála to grant permission for the south Kerry greenway as, I am sure, does the Deputy, who worked very hard on this issue. It has been a long time coming as funding was first allocated to this project back in 2014. One only has to have seen some of the footage that was included in news reports over the weekend following the decision to acknowledge just how iconic this greenway will be when built. Most greenways are lucky to have one iconic feature whereas the south Kerry greenway will have a number of them, including the mountain pass with views over Dingle Bay, the Gleesk viaduct, the Drung Hill tunnels and the Cahersiveen railway bridge, all of which will contribute to what will be one of the finest greenways in Europe.

Of course, there are some elements of the board's decision that will need to be examined in further detail. I understand that Kerry County Council is looking at the implications of these conditions, particularly the non-approval of the section from Cahersiveen to Reenard Point. I expect to see some options submitted in the new year as to how that missing link may be handled. It may be the case that it makes more sense to bring the route through the town of Cahersiveen and to provide an on-road highly segregated route that would bring users to the heart of the town before going towards Reenard Point and onwards to Valentia.

I am sure the Deputy will have seen our recent press release on funding for greenway projects in 2021. Some €1.4 million is remaining from the original allocation of €3.9 million from 2014 and this is available for Kerry County Council immediately to spend on this project next year. Kerry County Council will need to evaluate the impact of the changes to the project arising from An Bord Pleanála's decision and submit an updated and revised business case that includes costs and which complies with the public spending code to my Department. We will then examine it and decide what funding can be provided over the coming years.

I am sure the Deputy will have appreciated the additional €4 million in funding that I was able to allocate to two other projects in Kerry, the Listowel to the Limerick boundary and Tralee to Fenit sections of the great southern greenway. I understand that Kerry County Council will be bringing the Tralee to Listowel section to planning in 2021 and I would expect to see an application from it for construction funding for this section next year or the year after. I also hope that Limerick County Council will bring forward planning for its sections of the route over the coming years and that we will eventually have the entire great southern greenway constructed between Limerick and Fenit.

As part of the programme for Government, we achieved a commitment to spend €360 million per annum on cycling and walking infrastructure across government. The south Kerry greenway will form part of that expenditure over the coming years, along with a large number of other greenways that are under construction or in planning at present. I was delighted earlier this year to allocate funding of €4.5 million to 26 different projects around the country that will provide a pipeline of projects to be considered for funding. As we have seen with the south Kerry greenway, it can take considerable time for projects to secure planning permission and that is why we are pre-funding feasibility, planning and environmental studies for a large number of projects so that they are shovel-ready when they are funded for construction.

I look forward to cycling the south Kerry greenway in the near future. I took a break in Valentia this summer and the Deputy is right; it is the most spectacular location. I will never forget going on a cycling holiday in the same area as a young child. We headed off from Valentia along that dramatic cliff road and down into Ballinskelligs on the other side. I will never forget it and anyone who has cycled it or walked it would feel the same. Continuing on after getting this route all the way from Limerick to Valentia or Reenard Point makes sense. It is part of the Ring of Kerry and of a much wider regional greenway. It will make a huge difference to towns like Cahersiveen and Glenbeigh and every other place on the route. I will very much support the Deputy in making this happen as quickly as possible.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his very positive response. It is very encouraging to see the enthusiasm with which he approaches this project. If I had never been a Dáil Deputy, this is something about which I would still have personally been passionate. I remember talking about the potential for a cycleway on this old railway line in geography class when I was in secondary school. This was back in the 1990s when cycling tourism was not considered to be a money-spinner. It inspired scenes in the children's novels I wrote a number of years ago. I really want to see it happen. There are beautiful books written about the old railway line by Patrick O'Sullivan. We owe it to the great engineers and workers who have gone before us and who sweated blood and tears to build this fantastic infrastructure back in the 1880s and 1890s to make the most of it for future generations. That is why what is happening now is so positive and encouraging and, as I have said, could be symbolic of a renaissance for this part of the county.

As the Minister will know, however, money talks. We require the funding to get his project going and to make it happen now. I see this as part of an overall integrated network which we can complete. The parts of the jigsaw are now starting to come together. I remember writing a little piece called "Why Greenways should be called Goldways" back in 2013 after cycling the Westport-Achill line. The point I made in this piece was that there are many opportunities in Kerry to develop a linked-up network. At the time, people told me that I was crazy and that the route between Tralee and Fenit would never happen but it is now under construction. The Limerick border to Listowel route is also under construction. The linking of Tralee to Listowel is now one step closer after the funding that was received last week. There is no reason the south Kerry greenway from Glenbeigh to Reenard could not extend further in the future and link up with those other routes.

I call on the Minister to do everything he can to find the funding. I also commend all the supporters of this project over many years, particularly the people in Kerry County Council who never lost faith and many others in the south Kerry area who helped us to get to this point. We are not over the line yet and there may be a long way to go but last Thursday's decision was certainly very positive. The funding is the next step.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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There is money in cycling tourism. I know it. I spent 15 years in our family business, which my sister and her husband still run and which is involved in cycling tourism.

I have to declare that background. One of the attractive things about cycling tourism is that it tends to slow people in a region down. Some of the places people want to go cycling in are the more out of the way places so this disperses funding down to the local level of bed and breakfast accommodation and local pubs, restaurants and shops. It is a good form of tourism and it is low impact in a range of different ways.

My experience in this is in international marketing. I am a former chairman of the walking cycling Ireland business group, a national organisation. It is brilliant that we have these routes connecting up to become part of an extended network because we can go to Germany or America and say we have these high quality routes. This is not just greenway routes as there will be other areas where we will not have a rail line or a completely segregated route. There are good areas for cycling where we can use our existing road network. This could be part of some of the routes we are suggesting. The Ballaghbeama Gap through the centre of the Iveragh Peninsula is a stunning road which is not dangerous to cycle. The volume of traffic is low and there is a good line of sight. I have brought thousands of people on some of those back roads. In my experience of cycling around the Beara Peninsula, which is the next peninsula down from Iveragh, this could be done without necessarily always having segregated routes. We have to start thinking about this type of tourism as a major part of our tourism potential, which it is and people know that in the area. When I am cycling on a road and I receive a one-finger signal from a driver to say hello, I always take that as an indication that the road is safe enough to cycle on because people can see each other, the speeds are not so fast and there is a culture of connection and respect. We have that across rural Ireland but particularly in Cork and Kerry in my experience.

While these projects are for tourism, particularly in areas such as Kerry, they are also local infrastructure for local people. They are there to make it easy for a local child to get to school or for a local person to get to the shops, to work or to use in an everyday way. They are not disconnected from local use and must be for local use first and foremost in my view. My understanding is that the difficulty with the section from Reenard Point to Valentia and back to Cahersiveen relates to coastal erosion. It was not a planning difficulty or a compulsory purchase order problem. The alternative is for us to provide infrastructure in the fine and stunning town of Cahersiveen that enhances the town and makes it easier for local people to get a good public realm and a well-designed main street. We should use this as a mechanism to reimagine Cahersiveen. I mention what we have done in Clonakilty with the good public realm there. Let us do that in Cahersiveen at the same time as we put the greenway through. That would turn the town around and make it a tourism Mecca.