It would also be a nice synergy, synchronicity or whatever one wants to call it if we were to have the tour in 2028, rolling down the Wild Atlantic Way, and also open our velodrome in the same year. That would be a fantastic year for cycling in general in Ireland. Perhaps we could work towards that particular ambition.
]]>I welcome the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, and the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, and their colleagues to the meeting here in Committee Room 2. As the Minister and Minister of State are present, it is not expected that officials will speak in public session. I also wish to advise that the opening statements and any other statements submitted to the committee may be published on the committee website after this meeting. Is that agreed? Agreed.
The format of the meeting is such that I will invite opening statements from the Minister and Minister of State, which will then be followed by questions from members as we consider each programme area. It is proposed that questions will be taken as members indicate for today's session, as we consider each programme area. Is that agreed? Agreed.
Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or any official, either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. I remind members of the constitutional requirement that members must be physically present within the confines of Leinster House in order to participate in public meetings. I will not permit a member to attend where they are not adhering to this constitutional requirement. Therefore, any member who attempts to attend from outside the precincts will be asked to leave the meeting.
I propose that we now proceed with the opening statements, and I invite the Minister, Deputy Martin to commence.
]]>I recall in the general election of 2011 that John very kindly and generously spent a whole day canvassing with me in the town of Ballinasloe on a Saturday, in a very busy market town and market that still takes place in the centre of the town every Saturday. As Deputy English mentioned earlier, he went around to every single stall and stallholder. Everybody he approached knew who he was but he still had the self-deprecation and humility to introduce himself, to say hello and to say that his name was John Bruton. It meant a great deal to me personally, indeed to those involved in my campaign and to my family, that somebody of John’s stature would take time to come down to Ballinasloe, to stand at my shoulder, and to say that he endorsed this young man as he embarked upon his political career.
John, I thank you for being such an inspiration. I recall one of my last duties in my Ministry in the Department of Foreign Affairs speaking at a conference in Dhaka on the transformative power of education. I was handed an excellent speech by a friend and a colleague in the Department at the time to give to an assembled gathering of international leaders about the transformative power of education. I said that I would rather dispense with that and tell a story. This was the story of Ireland and of how Ireland has been transformed from the Ireland of my father to the Ireland of my son. We should always reflect on the contribution which John Bruton, and indeed many others like him, have made to an absolute transformation when one thinks of the poverty, the strife, the insularity and the intolerance of the Ireland of my father and the country which my son and his peers occupy right now. It is an extraordinary transformation and we have to be so grateful to people like John Bruton who had the vision, the ambition and the deep public service commitment to achieve exactly that.
To us, John Bruton was a towering statesman, somebody of whom we can all be very proud, but it is also important to remember this other extraordinary gentlemen beside me here, and that he was a much and deeply loved brother. I say to Richard and to all those people who are close to John that they can be immensely proud of what he has achieved. I hope that all of the extraordinary memories they have of him as a brother, friend and colleague will carry them through the difficult times in the weeks ahead when they feel that hole in their heart and that vacuum in their lives.
Another form of words which I sometimes revert to when I am trying to extend my sympathies to people who have lost dear friends and family members are the words of Kahlil Gibran and I will finish with these, “When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.” My deepest sympathy to John’s family. May he rest in peace.
]]>I will make one final point. Every country is obliged to plan for its future based on the resources it has to deliver on that future. I live in a tiny east-coast Galway village. Two hundred people live there. I would love a train station outside my door; I know that will never happen. There are many similar towns and villages across this country that will never have that resource made available to them. Every country has to prioritise its infrastructural development based on need and resources, and in Ireland we do that through our national development plan. Right now, because of the massive inflation in construction costs, our current national development plan has a €9 billion hole in it. We cannot even deliver what we are setting out to deliver by 2040, and there will have to be a revision and a re-examination of that.
In that context, there will be a section allocated to transport. The pressures now in terms of national transport infrastructure development lie primarily where the most people live. That is how a country is managed. Right now, there are more people commuting to Galway city every day from just the towns of Oranmore and Athenry combined than there are from the whole of County Mayo. That is where the investment in rail is needed right now in the west of Ireland. It is in double-tracking the Dublin-Galway line, particularly from Ballinasloe all the way into Galway city centre, and in significantly developing park-and-ride facilities in Ballinasloe, Woodlawn, Attymon, Athenry and Oranmore, all the way into the city again. That is where we need to make huge additional rail investment in the next ten, 15 or 20 years.
In establishing what those priorities are, we have to be realistic and pragmatic and we have to plan in the best possible manner. I have read extensively every single report that has been done by people who are far more expert than any of us in this room - transport economists who report in a purely objective and rational manner - and their conclusion over and over again is that we will not see rail services reinstated on that line for the next 20 to 30 years. That is the reality, so, as Deputy Harkin says, let us act now. Let us act for the benefit of these communities right now. We could have a greenway live from Athenry all the way to Collooney in five years' time done and dusted and then when the rail comes - this is being done all over the world - pick it up, move the greenway to one side and put in the rail line. By the way, as regards the case Mr. Quinn makes, there are 365 level crossings between Claremorris and Collooney. It is highly likely that if we are ever to develop a rail service north of Claremorris, it will not even be on that line but will be on a completely different line that will be the subject of a CPO, like we do with most other national transport infrastructure.
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