Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree with everything the Senator has said. A 46 km free facility which people can use to have a day out with their friends and family at no cost is a huge thing to deliver. It will be very significant and to have 46 km of this is amazing.

My experience of being on the Mayo greenway is that I saw so many people employed along the way, whether in hotels, cafés or restaurants, with bikes and walkers outside them that never would have been there if it was not for that greenway. When we think of how we bring jobs to a rural area, putting in a facility like that is not the first thing we would have thought of. The other thing I noticed on the Mayo greenway was children going to school, so it was not just being used for tourism. Tourism is great and it brings money and people, and that is what people think of with greenways, but it has a sustainable travel benefit, it is safe to use and people are happy with their kids going along that route. This has the addition of being not just a greenway but a blueway as well. As the Senator said, businesses are not going to be just hotels and in hospitality and there will also be canoeing groups and so on.

Regarding signage and mapping, that is something the Senator will need to talk to the local authority about, and it can certainly apply for grants through the sustainable travel fund. With regard to mapping, there are a couple of major online map suppliers and the Senator would need to get in there, contact them and let them know this is coming, so it appears on the map and people can see that it is there. It is going to be a fantastic facility when it is delivered this year.