Cllrs demand stronger message be sent to Government over rail line necessity

The first glimmer of good news in four years on the possible provision of a rail link between Navan and Pace was delivered this week when the National Transport Authority announced that it has gone to tender for the appointment of consultants to test the viability of the line.

However, local councillors considering a new County Development Plan over 16 days in November and December have demanded stronger language should be used in telling the Government what the county wants.

The National Transport Authority has tendered for consultants to carry out the Navan Railway Line Assessment Study and this has a deadline of the end of this month.

The study seeks to appoint a technical consultant to develop “an assessment study incorporating a comprehensive business case analysis in relation to the potential extension of the existing rail line from M3 Parkway close to Dunboyne to Navan”.

The latest news on the campaign mounted locally to revive the rail link issue was welcomed by Fianna Fáil Councillor Padraig Fitzsimons.

He said that nothing had happened on the rail line in the past four years and the announcement by Meath County Council gave some hope that the Navan rail line project might be included in the national transport strategy which is now being prepared.

However, at discussions by council members on the county development plan on Tuesday he said that the wording in relation to a viability assessment was “too watery – it doesn’t say what we want. It is allowing the regulator to say what he or she wants, not what Meath wants or Navan wants”.

If the proposed appraisal was favourable to the regulator, it was his or her plan, not Meath County Council’s plan.

CEO Jackie Maguire said that the matter was not in the hands of the regulator. The regulator’s role was to see that all Government policy was complied with. She said the rail line issue was critical to the council and was a major objective of the council but it was important that Government policy be conformed with, whatever that policy was at a particular time.

Aontu Cllr Emer Toibin said it was disappointing, especially with the Green Party involved, that the rail line had not been included in the Programme for Government. FF Cllr Paul McCabe said he failed to see how the new appraisal could have any different result if it was going to use the same scope as a previous study.

Independent Cllr Brian Fitzgerald said the rail line wasn’t in the National Development Plan up to 2040.

“If this study is into the re-appraisal of a rail line, then we are in big trouble”, he said.

Independent Cllr Nick Killian said the council should have the “liathroidi to say exactly what we want”.

He said that the Office of the Planning Regulator was “not the Dominic Cummings of the Irish political system – it is the minister who decides policy”.

Fine Gael Cllr Noel French said that it was likely that “people will see flying cars before they see a rail line to Navan.”