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

It is tricky to speak in advance of the NDP being published on Monday. There still are ongoing negotiations regarding the final arrangements in that. However, the broad agreement I have had with the Ministers, Deputies Michael McGrath and Donohoe, the party leaders and Cabinet and Government in general is that we seek to deliver all the major public transport projects that are in planning or in train. It is critical, that is not only the Dublin projects. It is critical we do Limerick rail, Cork metropolitan rail, Galway and Waterford, as well as rural bus services under Connecting Ireland. I could set out an array of basic transport projects.

My approach to the NDP was look to make sure that we progress the widest scope. It is critical to do that to help address our housing crisis and we want transport-led developments to give a signal that the housing is built where there will be public transport. With that, there are various different elements to it. In many of the rail projects, Irish Rail will be the key deliverer and it will have the ability. Going back to what I was saying about competitive tension between cities, Irish Rail will be doing DART+ in Dublin but it will also be doing metropolitan rail in Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and-or potential other projects, such as the Navan rail line. One could pick a number of different projects which, hopefully, we will see in the greater Dublin area transport strategy, etc., that will then therefore be in train. The metro is slightly different in the sense that it is a large single project. It is much bigger than any of the others and it is one where once you start, you do not stop. If you have a tunnelling machine going you work right the way through whereas you might see the DART+, for example, start very immediately in some of the routes because these new trains I was speaking about earlier will immediately be able to fit in to commuter routes. We will have the new DART battery electric trains, which will bring significant changes, efficiencies and benefits, but it can be done on a phased basis. Metro is more a "yes-no" project. The way we are approaching the NDP is to see that we progress all those different projects.

I keep going back to it because it is the honest and correct answer. The exact starting time of each depends to a certain extent on planning and-or legal challenge. That, in truth, in the past, has been the key factor. Once we are through that, I expect to be able to press the "Go" button, subject to Government approval, Government decision-making and the Cabinet agreeing, but there is not a plan to say that then we will delay. The business case is set out-----