There is a need for joined up thinking on this issue. Rail does not stand alone. It should be integrated with future spatial planning and the economic development of the region. Those of us in the mid-west region increasingly feel we are being left behind because of the economic situation and the concerns about the future of Shannon Airport. The region has huge potential and the railway line plays an essential role in its future economic development. The planning of the new M7 motorway link from Nenagh to Limerick appears to be at an advanced stage about which we will know more this afternoon. It is causing huge personal grief to people, which I encounter almost daily. They face the loss of their houses and farms and the division of their land. Some are elderly and unable to cope. They are among those who ask me, as a public representative, who made the decision to invest billions of euro in a motorway for which nobody asked while at the same time it is impossible to get a train from Nenagh to Limerick.