Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to put on the record my preliminary observations on the plan by the Office of Public Works, OPW, to carry out major work in the Phoenix Park. The OPW does tremendous work and I have huge admiration for it. It has done a great job in conserving the Phoenix Park and making sure it has not degraded. I have no problem with the building of a bridge over to the Islandbridge war memorial, which is one of the proposals, but the very idea of a funicular railway into the Phoenix Park is misconceived. Part of the attraction of the Phoenix Park is that it is, in some sense, a relic of the 18th and 19th centuries, part of the former Irish Raj in which big residences were plonked around the enormous campus.