Mr. Hugh Creegan:

I will take a few those questions. On the DART underground and DART expansion, DART expansion is included in the national development plan.

It is not stated in the plan that the tunnel will not be built. Rather, it is stated that the tunnel will follow separately. The Deputy asked for an explanation in this regard. Approximately two years ago, a business case for DART underground was carried out by Irish Rail, with the involvement of the NTA. DART underground by itself does not stack up economically, the benefits to cost ratio being only 0.8%. The reason for this is that services outside connecting areas provide the real benefits. Two big changes have occurred over the past couple of years that impacted the DART expansion and DART underground thinking, namely, the opening of the Phoenix Park tunnel, which brings trains in from the Kildare line, and the MetroLink project, which provides a direct connection to the DART system at Tara Street. There is currently no need for the DART underground tunnel. During the course of our work in this area it became evident that the vast bulk of the benefit would be derived from expansion of DART services to Drogheda and Maynooth via the Kildare line. Rather than wait for a tunnel to be built, we propose to commence electrification of those lines and purchase the fleet necessary to provide these services, following which the tunnel will be built. We do not need a tunnel to get the bulk of the benefits from this project.