Cllrs rally to defend council’s role in pushing for Navan rail line

A NOTICE of motion by an Aontu councillor calling on Meath County Council to report to councillors on all steps being taken to speed up the smooth delivery of the rail line to Navan caused some controversy at a meeting of the council, with some councillors calling it “a political stunt” and others saying that the recent announcement by the former Taoiseach that the Cabinet had signed off on plans to bring a line to Navan was good news for the project.

Cllr Emer Tóibín had introduced her motion at the February meeting. Cathaoirleach Cllr Nick Killian said that they had been waiting for a couple of years for some word to emerge about progress and this [Mr Martin’s announcement] was the first time that something positive had happened about bringing the railway to the town. He found the terminology of the Government statement “really, really positive”. People needed to pull together rather than knock it.

Independent Cllr David Gilroy said that they should cast their minds back to 2020-2021 when Meath County Council as a whole had done a lot of work on the project and that included the executive and the elected members. A lot had been done to get the rail line onto the Government’s agenda. He knew that “political hay” was there to be made about the situation but they shouldn’t forget where they had come from. The hard work had been done during those years, something that was supported by everyone including the Oireachtas members .”To suggest to keep engaging on this issue somehow that Meath County Council needed to be prompted was a little bit off the mark considering the amount of work done”.

Fine Gael Cllr Maria Murphy said that since she had been elected in 2009, the council had been active in every possible way in promoting the rail project. Public consultation on the project would take a number of years. She felt the biggest challenge would come in route selection, the acquisition of land and the bridges that would have to go in. “I don’t want this project to be used as a political stunt and I would call on the media to be responsible in their reporting of it”.

Fianna Fail Cllr Mike Bray said that the previous fortnight had seen the first time the project had been seen in a Government document. He said that when National Transport Authority CEO Anne Graham had visited the council some time ago she had intimated that the solution to transport issues in the county was buses but he said that in the last week a Greater Dublin Area document had listed as its first transport item the rail line from Dunboyne to Navan.

Fine Gael Cllr Joe Fox said: “This motion is a pure political stunt by Cllr Tóibín and her party because she knows this is the first time we have a definite commitment that the rail line is coming to Navan. This is a cynical attempt to try to muddy the waters and get a headline in the Chronicle next week. I think we should be trying to enhance our transport services in the county”.

Fianna Fail Cllr Paul McCabe said that for someone to come into the council chamber and in some way suggested that the officials were dragging their heels on the project is “reprehensible”. Cllr Tóibín was wrong to suggest there was no funding to bring the project forward.

Independent Cllr Trevor Golden said he felt the announcement was a very positive one. “We have gone from the draft stage to the approved stage and that is very welcome. And it did not happen by accident. Cllr Gilroy has spoken about the meetings we had about the issue and the amount of feedback we had given back from the council and that’s thanks to the CEO and the officials of the council”.

Meath Co Council said it had made a provision of €100,000 in its capital plan to assist with the procurement of professional and technical services to support the progression of the scheme.