Results 1-14 of 14 for long segment:8880848

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

Martin Browne: ...of immunity from legal proceedings as a witness giving evidence from within the parliamentary precincts and may consider it appropriate to take legal advice on this matter. Witnesses are again reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable, or...

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

...policy of Mayo County Council in respect of the western rail corridor, as guided by the elected members and as outlined in the country development plan, has been consistent and unequivocal over a long period and has been adopted by successive councils. The members have adopted an approach of seeking to have the western rail corridor in its entirety from Athenry to Sligo reopened for both...

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

Mr. Barry Kenny: The rail infrastructure such as is there is not really of any value to a future reopening. It has been disused for so long that ultimately we would be talking about a completely new rail track, bed, rails, sleepers and everything. That there is some older infrastructure is not an enormous benefit really. One would be starting over, as it were. There is just the land and...

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

Mr. Kevin Kelly: I am not long enough in Mayo County Council to know the history there but in the last one I recall in Galway we varied the city and county development plans to support the Galway city ring road, for example.

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

Seán Kyne: I welcome Mr. Kelly, Mr. McMyler and Mr. Kenny to the committee. I agree that it is time that the all-Ireland rail review was published. We have waited long enough. If it is not published today, I hope it will be published next week and that we will have certainty on the issues pertaining to the western rail corridor and the relevant campaigns. Having been a local councillor, my...

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...Sligo to Galway and down to Limerick. It would do more to integrate communities and rebalance the imbalance there has been between the west and east of the country. We would be putting in place long-term infrastructure around which we can build the economy. This is why I see the rail line as being crucial. I see as an advantage to the rail line the development of a greenway along with...

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

Eugene Murphy: I join others in saying it is time that the report was published. We are sort of in a vacuum. We do not know what is supposed to be coming. Given that we do not have that report, how long does Mr. Kenny think, realistically, it would take to redevelop that line to the point of it being open for rail business, if we were to get a positive in the report now?

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: ...Government is the ultimate arbitrator of all of this in terms of funding. Things can change and new governments can have new policies. Therefore, I welcome the rail strategy because it gives us long-term vision but it is not going to be a totally inflexible document that no government can touch or change over the coming years. Can Mr. Kenny tell me how many NDPs back did the Foynes to...

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: So there was not a long 20-year plan that it was included in.

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: In the Mayo county development plan there is talk about connecting, at enormous cost, for example, Shannon Airport, to the rail network. There is also the long mooted metro in Dublin which will cost billions of euro. It is a ten-minute bus ride from the terminal at Knock Airport to Charlestown station. Is it a policy of Mayo County Council to develop the Knock to Galway and Knock to Sligo...

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: ...want to be able to get home. Some students only spend five days in their lodgings, some students only do two days in their lodgings because they commute in various ways, and some students do long-term commutes. We live in a very uncertain world and in a world where plans can become redundant very fast. Again, it would have been wiser to hold the railway line because experience would...

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

...throughout the country, including on that alignment. We have to work in the public policy environment we are presented with, which right now, again in draft form, would indicate reasonably long term that that is not happening. In any engagements we have with Sligo County Council or elsewhere where such matters are being decided, we would be very clear that if it is a route we want to go...

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

Marian Harkin: ...the purpose of that. Competition does not help anybody and there is no need for it in this instance. Deputy Kenny spoke about a solution. If it is the policy in Mayo that they want to build a greenway alongside the railway, then let them go ahead but we found a solution in both Sligo and Leitrim. We have reached the end of stage 2 of the Sligo greenway project and the Sligo, Leitrim,...

Committee on Public Petitions: Campaign for a Walking and Cycling Greenway on the Closed Railway from Sligo to Athenry: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

Martin Browne: ...we start making any recommendations. Both sides have been heard at this stage, so it is the Department we need to get in. That is where the uncertainty will be until we see exactly what its long-term plans are. Is it agreed to bring the Department and TII before the committee at the earliest possible date? Agreed. I thank Mr. Kenny, Mr. McMyler and Mr. Kelly for coming to speak to...