Call for Ireland's Apple Windfall Tax to help fund Derry to Letterkenny rail link

A motion to the council was proposed by Independent Councillor Declan Meehan.

Local rail campaigners Into The West met with Colr. Meehan earlier this month to discuss the case for restoring rail between Derry and Letterkenny.

Following the meeting, Colr. Meehan submitted a motion to Monday’s meeting of the full council, with two main asks. The first was for Donegal Council to seek funding for a feasibility study into restoring the Derry-Letterkenny route – to coincide with a study that is already ongoing into reopening the Derry-Portadown line.

The second was for a delegation from Donegal to meet the new Irish Government to lobby for rail reopening to be accelerated in the county.

Chair of Into The West, Steve Bradley, said: "The All-Island Rail Strategy has recommended that Letterkenny should have its rail restored, and a unique window of opportunity exists right now to do so.

"Firstly a dedicated €17bn infrastructure fund has been set up with the Apple Windfall Tax money, and the projects it will be spent on are due to be decided in the coming months. Secondly, the Northern and Western Region of Ireland – which includes Donegal – has an under-performing economy, which led the EU to officially downgrade its status in 2020 from a ‘developed’ region to one that is merely now ‘in transition’.

"This introduces the possibility of EU funding for rail projects in Donegal – funding which will no longer be available once the region’s economy is eventually upgraded again.”

"So Colr. Meehan’s motion to Donegal County Council is extremely timely, and we’re very grateful for his support in proposing it”.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the closure of the Derry-Portadown railway line, and Into the West wants to mark it the coming months by a joint cross-border delegation to Dublin and Stormont from all four councils in the north west – Derry and Strabane, Donegal, Fermanagh and Omagh and Mid-Ulster.

The aim will be to push for restoring the Derry-Portadown route as an agreed priority project within the All-Island Rail Strategy, and for the reopening of Derry-Letterkenny to be expedited and delivered within a decade.

Mr Bradley said: “The All-Island Rail Strategy recommended reopening the Derry-Portadown line to provide a rail corridor between the north-west and Dublin, but the route hasn’t been chosen as one of the strategy’s seven priority projects. It is essential that that decision is changed, as otherwise it just won’t happen for decades.

"Meanwhile Letterkenny is currently the third largest town in the Republic without rail, and by 2035 it will be the largest. It is essential that the unique window of opportunity presented by the Apple Windfall Tax and EU funding – as well as the recently announced €1bn for the Shared Island Fund – be used to ensure that Letterkenny gets its rail back before 2035.

"Otherwise it won’t happen until the second-half of this century, which will be a massive failure.

"It’s fantastic that Donegal Council has agreed to be part of such a cross-border delegation, and we’re very grateful to Colr. Meehan and all councillors in the county for their support. We hope that elected representatives in Derry-Strabane, Fermanagh-Omagh and Mid-Ulster will now also give their support to what would be an extremely powerful cross-border delegation on rail – one which would be impossible for the governments in Dublin and Belfast to ignore.”