Sir, – John Mulligan (June 22nd) bemoans the fact that politicians local to the proposed Apple Data Centre in Athenry are unable to look to the digital future and instead hanker after the age of steam.
He refers to the submissions made to the Apple planning application, suggesting that the disused rail line from Athenry to Collooney should be brought into use as a sustainable transport corridor and as a route for industrial broadband and indeed renewable power from the northwest.
As somebody who made one of the submissions to the Apple planning application, let me assure Mr Mulligan that this politician, at least, shares his vision for the potential that lies in this decaying asset. Far from allowing the rail route to gradually slip from State ownership by abandonment, I want to see it retained in public ownership as a tourism and leisure corridor, as well as a route for energy and broadband infrastructure. To that end, I suggested in my submission to the planners that I would provide every assistance in dealing with CIÉ and other State agencies in order to facilitate such investment in the region. Indeed, I understand that CIÉ already favours the protection of the route for future generations by means of a greenway, as is the norm elsewhere. None of this precludes future rail use, should economic conditions allow. It is all too easy for politicians to promise undeliverables like the extension of the lossmaking Western Rail Corridor, but like “draining the Shannon”, nobody really believes these promises any more. A proposal for the protection of the route and the leveraging of the asset for an immediate jobs boost instead of vague promises of trains represents a more honest approach to this issue, and I fully support any such proposition.– Yours, etc,
Senator LORRAINE
HIGGINS,
Leinster House, Dublin 2.