Planning minister asks that Navan Rail line priority be downgraded

Paul Murphy

Meath public representatives have hit out at what they say is a serious setback in the battle to have a rail line from Navan to Dublin restored in the next few years.
The Mayor of Navan Cllr Tommy Reilly  has hit out at the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy whom he claims has “seriously diluted” the policy of implementation of the rail line. The Government’s regional spatial strategy had provided for the implementation/delivery of the rail line within the lifetime of the strategy. However, the Minister has issued a draft directive to the Eastern and Midlands Regional Authority that the status of the rail line should go back from “implementation” to “review”, meaning that his draft directive will be put out for public scrutiny to await submissions from interested parties. 
Cllr Reilly said that he had been responsible for having the rail line included in national development strategy in the first place.

“I kept at this before the draft development plan went to the Department and it is sorely disappointing that we now find that the strategy of planning for a rail line between Navan and Dublin has been severely diluted. A review is a hell of a long way from implementation”.
The latest development would come as a shock to the business people of Meath but also to the thousands of commuters who “have to spend threre of four hours in their cars every day”, he said. “It is nothing short of scandalous. We’re coming down with Government Ministers in Meath but it looks like they have been asleep on the job here or else they have no influence at government”.
“The hopes and dreams of not only the people of Meath but the people of the wider region including Cavan and Monaghan have been shattered yet again”.
Meath West Fianna Fail TD Shane Casssells said that news of the further dilution of the rail project was “a betrayal of Meath” by the three Fine Gael ministers in the county.
“Shane Ross put the Navan rail project in a coffin but we’ve now got Fine Gael hammering the nails into that coffin”. 
“The people of Meath can see that they won’t fund the rail line because the only life on the platform on Railway Street are the pigeons that live there. Now the Government are trying to kill off even the hope of ever delivering this vital rail project because they are diluting it out of the planning and policy documents of the future”.
In eight years in Government FG had done nothing to advance the cause of the rail line and this latest move was another slap in the face for the people of Navan and the county, he said. 
A spokesperson for Meath County Council said that the council had received word of the minister’s directive on Monday afternoon and it would be studying the text carefully. He said that while no decisions had yet been made, it would be expected that the county council would make submissions on the draft directive when submissions were invited. The spokesperson said, however, that the issuing of the draft directive would not in any way affect preparations now under way for a new development plan for the county.