Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the National Transport Authority's review of its transport strategy for the greater Dublin area, launched last Thursday and which will take in counties Kildare, Wicklow and Meath.

The strategy will set out a policy and a blueprint for the next 20 years. One of the projects included in the review is one for which we have been waiting 20 years already, the Navan rail line. One wonders how much longer we are going to have to wait. I have read the assessment study and its objectives. It refers to undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the benefits of the project, encapsulating economic, environmental and societal benefits. If there is one thing politicians as public representatives can quantify, it is societal benefit from a major infrastructure project such as the Navan rail line.

I asked the previous transport Minister, Shane Ross, to come to Navan to assess this. From the very chair the Deputy Leader is sitting in now, he said he would be down but just not too early in the morning. He never made it across the Liffey. I have much more hope for the current Minister who, in this Chamber on 23 October, said there is real merit in the rail line to Navan and furthering the DART and metro extensions to that area. That is encouraging.

I encourage people to make their submissions to the review before 22 January. Equally, I encourage the Minister, a Green Minister who values public transport, to engage and put a real value on the people's lives in Navan and Meath. He should make the call that it is not just about pounds, shillings and pence but about the societal gain, as well as the gain to families' lives, their workplaces and homes. He must do the right thing because the people cannot wait another 20 years for a review.