Mr. Gerry Murphy:

Those projects were progressed on the basis of preliminary business cases for expected economic and demographic growth and passenger demand. In the case of the DART underground and metro north, a key consideration was the ability to use the public-private partnership mechanism to spread the cost over the 20 or 25 year horizon of the projects. They were being progressed on that basis. However, as the Government has insufficient funds to pay its portion of the cost and the PPP markets are broadly closed to that scale of project, the two projects were deferred. Both projects were taken through full design and statutory order approval. I understand a challenge has been taken to the rail order for DART underground but if that had been resolved both projects would be ready to avail of all the design and preliminary environmental work done to date. Post-2016, there will be another significant capital project in the Dublin region. The question is which one it will be.