Greenway extension to Sligo becomes political issue for European candidates

Greenway extension to Sligo becomes a political issue


Áine Ryan

THE campaign to extend the Greenway to Sligo has become a political football, among European Election candidates. Fine Gael MEPs Mairéad McGuinness and Jim Higgins have played down their rivalry in a constituency that has been vastly extended to cover 15 counties and is now the biggest geographically in the European Union. However, she has now declared her support for the Greenway while Jim Higgins says the reopening of this railway line must be prioritised.   
Responding to a series of questions put by the Mayo-Sligo Greenway campaign, Mairéad McGuinness said in an email on March 11 that ‘best international practice is to use the route as a greenway to provide economic development and leisure and amenity value today’.
“This development would create jobs and opportunities for communities immediately along the route while protecting the asset for possible future rail use,” she said.
Explaining that she supported the Navan-Kingscourt plan for a greenway along a disused railway line, she continued: “I support the development of a greenway on the route of the closed Claremorris-Collooney light railway, with the ownership of the asset remaining with CIE, in order to protect the route for future generations and to provide amenity value and employment right now.”
However, she added that she did ‘not oppose the development of railway lines, in fact it is a shame that we did not keep many of our railway lines open, but I fully understand that the best way to protect the disused line is to transform it into a greenway now so that we get value from it today.

Priority
MEANWHILE  in a joint statement, published on the West-On-Track Facebook page, Jim Higgins, along with Independent MEP Marian Harkin, and Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher of Fianna FΡil, confirmed their ‘support for the development of the Western Rail Corridor and for the West on Track campaign’.
They say ‘the development of road, rail, ports, airports and broadband infrastructure in the West and North-West, as part of the Western Arc, remains their immediate priority as European representatives, and that the existing railway should be reserved for rail use only’.
Speaking to The Mayo News yesterday, Jim Higgins said ‘there is no funding available for the development of a greenway to Sligo’.
“The development of a greenway to Sligo does not have the tourism potential of the Great Western Greenway and the money is not available. Even if it was to go ahead, it would scupper the possibility of this railway line ever being opened,” Mr Higgins said.
He dismissed categorically claims by Brendan Quinn of the Mayo-Sligo Greenway Campaign that he was against tourism jobs because of his stance on the greenway extension.
Mr Quinn said in a statement: “MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher (Fianna FΡil), MEP Jim Higgins (Fine Gael) and MEP Marian Harkin (Independent) have collectively issued a statement in response to the survey opposing any use for the route other than rail and do not support the campaign to create more tourist jobs in the region. Their stance belies the fact that as sitting MEPs they should be aware that there is no possibility of European funding for a railway on this route.”
The Mayo-Sligo Greenway Campaign recently wrote to all the declared candidates in the upcoming European Elections to assess their support for a greenway on the closed railway route from Collooney (Sligo) to Claremorris (Mayo), ‘in order to protect the route in public ownership until such time as a railway may be considered a possibility’.
Sitting MEP Mairéad McGuinness (Fine Gael), Labour candidate Lorraine Higgins and Independent TD Luke Ming Flanagan (Independent) all support the view that the establishment of a greenway on the Claremorris-Collooney route would protect the route for future generations.