Senator John McGahon - speech from 29 Jul 2020

Acting Leader, we had a very detailed debate yesterday about tourism but I think it would actually be quite a good idea if we kind of split that debate down into various sections so I think when we come back in the autumn it would be a very good idea to actually have a debate about greenways and what I mean in particular is about the strategic implementation of greenways and when there's so much funding coming into it now in the next couple of years thanks to the programme for government what exactly are the department doing to liaise with local authorities in making sure that greenware projects are on time and are feasible and can get through any unforeseen hazards or mishaps and this morning we saw 200,000 euro allocated to the greenway in North Louth to actually start the process to take it from Carlingford in North Louth south towards Dundalk and at the same time Newry and Moran District Council are building a greenway from Victoria Lough from Newry through Victoria Lough to meet the same greenway on the Northern Irish border so the long-term goal of this greenway is to have a greenway going right through the coast of County Louth right across the Northern Irish border up through Newry and hopefully even past Newry into the peninsula further on up so I think it would be a wonderful idea to get a debate on that in September and to actually liaise with our counterparts of the local authorities and departments in Northern Ireland to see if they're on the same page and we can even have more connecting greenways across the border into the future. Thank you.