Rail Network Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-21 ============================================================ Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central I thank the Senator for raising this important matter and again apologise for being late. I am taking the matter on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, who is genuinely apologetic he cannot be here. The Department of Transport, together with the Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland, published the rail project prioritisation strategy last year. This strategy outlines how to best sequence and optimise the recommendations of the all-island strategic rail review, which was published in July 2024. The strategy specifies short-term rail infrastructure investments, referred to as early interventions, to be delivered by 2030, including new track, passing loops and platforms to boost the rail network’s resilience and capacity, which are funded under the NDP sectoral investment plan for transport published by the Department in November 2025. The strategy also identifies major projects to be progressed in the longer run, involving intercity electrification and significant capacity upgrades on the rail network. This includes the reinstatement of the western rail corridor between Claremorris and Athenry. The NDP sectoral investment plan also provides funding to help commence this reinstatement project. Modelling undertaken as part of the rail review published in 2024 found that investments on the disused line between Claremorris and Sligo and onwards to Donegal would result in very low demand for passenger rail services and that building a railway would have a significant adverse impact on the environment. For these reasons, the project was not included in the recommendations of the rail review; hence it was not identified as a major project to be progressed in the rail project prioritisation strategy. However, the rail review will be reviewed and updated once a decade. This review will provide the opportunity to reconsider a potential extension of the western rail corridor further north, taking account of the latest policies and developments, for example, if there is an increased passenger demand as a result of the reinstatement of the line between Claremorris and Athenry. In relation to the proposed greenway between Claremorris and Collooney, the section of the disused railway from Claremorris to Bellaghy has never been included as a scheme within the greenways programme, which is funded by the Department of Transport through Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII. Sponsoring authorities, generally local authorities, may submit a case for annual funding to TII for consideration in relation to the greenway schemes. Separately, on the section of the disused railway line in County Mayo, to date, no submission has been received by TII from Mayo County Council in relation to progressing a greenway route between Claremorris and Charlestown. A feasibility study cannot be completed on a greenway scheme that has not been submitted for consideration of funding by the relevant sponsoring authority for review by TII. The section of the disused railway from Bellaghy to Sligo was an active scheme within the greenways programme until the end of last year. As part the development of this scheme, a third public consultation was held in November of 2024 regarding the emerging preferred corridor. The emerging preferred corridor was centred on the disused railway line, which remains in the ownership of Irish Rail, or Iarnród Éireann. Iarnród Éireann communicated in December 2024 that it was no longer able to support the greenway on the existing alignment at this time. Accordingly, Sligo County Council initiated a review in mid-2025 to ascertain if it is feasible to accommodate a greenway and a railway on the railway corridor. This review took account of the available width of the corridor as well as parameters maintained by Iarnród Éireann in relation to the offset distances required between a railway line and a greenway corridor. This review concluded that it was not possible to accommodate both modes within the railway corridor. The report also reviewed the potential to develop an alongside option that would be guided by the principle of aligning the greenway parallel to the disused railway line. It concluded that this was not feasible due to a range of factors including increased cost, the potential impact on special areas of conservation and land acquisition, as well as various engineering challenges. On this basis, Sligo County Council opted to suspend work on the greenway scheme in late 2025 as the alongside option was not a viable option. I hope that this helps clarify the matter for Senator Cosgrove. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-21