James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For the first time on the public record, I wish to say to the Chairman how grateful I am for his guidance and assistance. I am thankful for it. It is good to have the Secretary General, Mr. Spratt, before the committee. The Department he is in charge of and controls an astronomical budget in terms of the capital projects it is working on. I have worked closely with him as a member of the Joint Committee on Transport. We have, in recent days, seen project delays raise their ugly heads again. As a young parliamentarian, I am anxious to see progress being made on future development and trying to help to diversify our transport infrastructure in Ireland and install a more climate friendly transport infrastructure in both urban and rural areas. I am very concerned, to be straight with Mr. Spratt, because the amount of time it takes to build projects in Ireland is not right. Something is amiss. Public confidence is important for all of us elected representatives and Members of the Oireachtas. We represent our constituencies. When I talk to ordinary members of the public on the ground, they have lost all confidence in the Department for Transport's ability to build major infrastructural projects. Things like the metro have not helped. That is an issue the Department needs to tackle urgently. I am not trying to throw anyone under a bus but that is the reality of how the people of Ireland view the progress that is being made in the Department of Transport. We are facing an unprecedented emergency for our climate. We must get more people onto public transport. We urgently need the development of public transport infrastructure and the fact that we are now in 2021 without an underground metro system in our capital city, a primate city which has more than 1 million living in it, is completely and utterly unacceptable. That is not the direct responsibility of the witnesses before the committee today. Many of their predecessors had a role to play in that absence, as had other elected officials. It is important for me to set the context for some of my questions.

Surely one of the witnesses is in a position to answer this question. Taking a project like MetroLink, if we were to restart it from scratch in the morning, what would be the timeline from concept phase to it being built if all went to plan?