Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will add to that, because it is best to be honest with people. There is also then a tendering process and that takes time. Within that, depending on the structure used, the overall budget allocation has to work. Some projects will be over two decades and that helps in managing the budget.

Some projects, and the metro may be an example, can involve a PPP element whereby some of the cost is carried over a 30- or 40-year period, or even longer. That allows the budget window to be managed more easily so that a Minister is not just constrained by whatever the ten-year capital allocation is within this particular Department. Those final details are still to be agreed and worked out. It is a moving part.

I keep going back to the work I did two decades ago. We did a detailed plan for the future needs of Dublin. I trust that original planning, which showed an underlying need for a higher capacity line to the north side. That is the case not only because of the airport but also because of those development lands, Swords and so on. There are also institutions such as Dublin City University, the Mater Hospital and so on. That underlying analysis is still accurate. I have, therefore, always been an advocate of the metro. How it is delivered, how it gets through planning and goes through a tendering process is not yet concluded. We will only know exact timelines when we get to that phase.