Mr. Michael Nolan:

We are working on it and have been for the past year. We are effectively starting with a clean page for metro north which will have to connect Dublin city centre with the airport and on to Swords. Beyond that, no particular constraint was put on us. We are obliged to look at it afresh, which we are doing. The elements that need to be teased out fully are where we will tie into the green line south of the city centre; where we will interact with the city centre and the DART underground service; and the positioning of stations within the city centre. The positioning at Dublin Airport is fixed and we know exactly where we are going. The manner in which we will interact with Swords is still being looked at. The programme is to have the alignment, the preferred route, selected by quarter one of next year. The public consultation phases will start at the end of this year, in engaging with Fingal County Council, the other local authorities and other interests such as the Dublin Airport Authority prior to that. By July we will probably be clear on a number of the engineering questions relating to the alignment and can then progress from there. The plan is to be at An Bord Pleanála by 2021 and have construction complete by 2026 or 2027. I know that it might seem like a long way away, but it is a very big project.