Cabinet Committees
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-19
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

There is a review under way and work is being done by EirGrid, the Department and the ESB to work that out and understand the challenges. It is being actively pursued. As I said earlier, up to €13 billion will now be invested in the grid itself. We have given the equity to EirGrid for grid upgrades. We met with EirGrid and ESB Networks yesterday at a Cabinet subcommittee meeting, with a view to those companies presenting to us the full map of Ireland with all the various upgrades and projects. We are talking about a couple of hundred projects here and that will need political support. What will happen is that in different localities, some Deputies will come under pressure because people will say they do not want kV lines but at some stage we have to get real as a country. We cannot have each-way bets every time. These are debates that we need to have sensibly. We need to engage with communities and put the facts on the table in terms of the implications if we do not go ahead.
It will mean less economic growth, fewer houses and less development of rural land if we do not get the upgrades to the grid over the line.
Deputy Quaide is probably too young to ever have been on the Youghal train but I had great experiences on it as a child. We all, multiple families, went on it from Turners Cross to Youghal. It was a fantastic service at the time. There is a fantastic greenway there now but I hear what the Deputy is saying. There is huge investment in the commuter rail project in Cork. It is fantastic. All the stations are being built and that development is, and will be, phenomenal. The Midleton rail line was the first part of that and it was Fianna Fáil that put it back into use. The late Séamus Brennan made the point that it was the first railway sanctioned in approximately 50 years. He did that, we have progressed it and the Kent Station reforms have happened. However, I hear Deputy Quaide loud and clear in respect of Youghal. CIÉ is constantly reviewing the situation but it has to get done what it has planned to do in the next number of years.
The upgrade of the N25 is vital and Deputy O'Connor has done a lot of good work on that. It must be acknowledged that it has to happen.
Deputy Tóibín spoke about Navan. I think he is being a bit unfair to Deputy Dempsey, Shane Cassells, the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, and others who have done a lot of work in terms of where we are now. We have a national development plan that has the resources that are needed. The Critical Infrastructure Bill will be coming through the House. I hope Deputy Tóibín will support it to ensure we are able to get projects through more quickly.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-19