Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

Estimates of the cost of providing a metro from Dublin Airport or Swords to the city centre range from €2 billion to €5 billion. Even the lower figure is a considerable amount of money which would be a massive investment, but the cost to the taxpayer of the public private partnership route proposed by the Minister could be much greater than the estimates I have cited.

There is a case for developing a route from Swords via the airport to the city centre as it would allow stops on a number of sites which have the potential for high-density development. Questions have already been raised as to whether Dublin has sufficient population density to support a metro. The proposed Swords route would provide a critical mass and, more important, a source of income to fund a metro project. Funding could be generated by imposing levies on developers who own land along the route and stand to benefit substantially from such major transport infrastructure development. Would it not be proper that such people should make a contribution towards the cost of this important infrastructure? The case for doing so has been made and tried elsewhere, notably in Washington DC.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has already agreed to fund an extension to Luas by way of development levies. Such is the level of interest in an extension of a proposed metro from the airport to Swords that Fingal County Council has offered to pay the cost by means of development levies. Does it not make sense that the property owners, the value of whose property stands to be enhanced considerably by a metro, should make a significant contribution to its cost? Is that not the fairest and most logical approach to funding a metro project?

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