Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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4. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the status of the ongoing review of the Navan rail line; the date on which the review will be completed; the date on which the results of the review will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32459/21]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I want to ask the Minister about the status of the ongoing review of the Navan rail line, the date on which the review will be completed and the date on which the results of the review will be published.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As the Deputy is aware, the issue of a rail connection to Navan is being re-examined as part of the NTA’s review of the transport strategy for the greater Dublin area, GDA. The strategy, as we all know, is a multimodal, 20-year transport strategy for the region and one that must be reflected in relevant land use strategies across the GDA. The relevant Act requires the NTA to review and update the strategy every six years and that review is well under way. The NTA has already held the first public consultation as part of the review, with the publication late last year of an issues paper. I know that as part of that initial consultation process, people made their views known about a possible rail line to Navan and no doubt the Deputy contributed to that process. As part of its overall review, the NTA has engaged external expertise to specifically re-examine the feasibility of a Navan rail line and this specific assessment will be an input into the overall review. This assessment will be a factual report, detailing the feasibility of the project by addressing its need and its alignment with national, regional and local policy, establishing its benefits and providing a comprehensive economic and financial assessment of the project in accordance with the requirements of the public spending code.

The next step in the process is a second round of public consultation on a draft revised strategy and I am informed that this public consultation will take place in early autumn. As part of the consultation process, all background reports, such as the one being prepared for the Navan rail line, will be published in full, allowing for detailed review by all interested parties and assisting with developing their feedback. It is expected that a revised strategy will be ready by mid-2022. I would note of course that delivery of projects and programmes under any revised strategy over the medium term will be determined by the allocations we receive as part of the ongoing national development plan, NDP, review.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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Last night, my party and almost all of the Opposition supported the climate Bill. It is not easy for the Opposition to support the Government. Our party did that because the Bill states that this State is taking climate action seriously and that it recognises climate change as a challenge. In addition, targets for 2030 and 2050 are enshrined in the Bill. How we get there will be contested and so our support was reserved support. We will continue to fight for just transition. The Navan rail line will be a measure of that. The opportunity is there to take people out of private cars and put them on public transport and it is what they want to do, although cars will have an important role into the future. We want to see commitment. Will there be additional funding for projects such as the Navan rail line? It will take additional funding.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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It will take additional funding and I appreciated Sinn Féin's support yesterday. It is conditional support and there will be hard choices that will have to take place over 30 years when we have to get net zero. We will have choices because we will be looking for funding for the rail extension in Wicklow as we have just heard. We will be looking for the likes of the extension of the Luas to Fingal. We need rail stations across Limerick, which I am sure Sinn Féin and the Green Party will be looking for funding for. We also have massive public funding requirements for housing as we all know. There are a lot of tough choices to be made.

Putting housing and transport together is the one that always makes sense to me. That is why I have been supportive of the Navan rail line. It has the potential to start concentrating development in Meath, which is growing rapidly, close to public transport stations. It is in the context of this wider review that we will do this. It is also in the context of the NDP review, which will only look at this decade, but we have to do it in the context of where we are going to in 2050, which is net zero. That is a modal shift to electrification and reducing the amount of travel. This and a range of other projects will be key to that.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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Meath County Council and the people of Meath are doing everything right with this project. They are putting their hands up and preparing plans. The focus on Dunshaughlin and Navan for compact and transport-led development is entirely consistent with existing policies. The people of Meath, the local authority and the representatives are doing the right things and they should be rewarded for that if the policy means anything.

On the selection of the route, there was an argument initially that this project was designed to fail because the proposed route went west of Dunshaughlin rather than east towards Ratoath and Ashbourne. Will that be considered? On the appraisal framework, the Minister heard from the Joint Committee on Climate Action about how we assess these major infrastructure projects. Is that being developed? That would benefit the Navan rail project.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The national investment framework for transport in Ireland is our assessment of transport infrastructure and it is based on a hierarchy of supporting active travel first and trying to reuse existing assets second before getting down to new assets. This rail line is new in that it is laying new track and we do not have an existing line. We cannot use the other lines into Navan with circuitous routes via Louth so it is a significant investment. This would not be a cheap project. Like a lot of transport projects, we are looking at the cost estimates for what a project would be running into multiples of what people might have thought a few years ago. To cover the cost of that, it has to bring huge planning gain and housing development gain that makes the economics work. Included in that appraisal is a complete reassessment of the cost of carbon and other factors that one takes into account, while public transport is beneficial.