Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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1368. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the status of the greenway west of Athlone. [35801/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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​As the Deputy will be aware, concerns were expressed by a number of landowners in Galway following the publication of the initial 'preferred route' identified for the Greenway from Athlone to Galway and my predecessor instructed Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and Galway County Council to consult landowners along the route in relation to their concerns.  Following the publication of the TII report on these consultations, a decision was taken in late 2015 to pause development of the Greenway west of Athlone to allow all stakeholders to consider how best to progress this project.  It is now recognised that the approach taken initially in relation to the preferred route was sub-optimal and lessons have been learned from that experience.

My Department recently completed a public consultation process to inform the development of a Strategy for the future development of greenways in Ireland.  The objective of the new strategy will be to set out a cohesive and forward looking approach to the development, funding and promotion of greenways generally. The issues affecting the delivery of a greenway between Athlone and Galway will be among those considered.

  A substantial number of submissions have been received by my Department in response to the public consultation process. I was  pleased with the level of interest shown by private citizens and stakeholders alike whose views will now be considered in the coming weeks and months as the strategy is being developed.

Details of the submissions received will be available in the public domain in due course.