Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of questions. In relation to the DART+, BusConnects and MetroLink, I read through the briefing notes yesterday that the NTA sent along. I thank Ms Graham for them. There is €46 million spent so far on DART+. There is fleet money there but I am not counting that. I am talking about spending on developing the project. On BusConnects, there is €89 million spent on developing the project and on MetroLink, there is €88.1 million spent on advancing the project. In the documents that the NTA sent along to us, I was trying to map out the progress on them. While I understand that there will be substantial preparation work to be done, when you put all of that together, €223 million has been spent on preparation work across those three projects, namely, the DART+, BusConnects and MetroLink.

I refer to the documents the NTA sent. For example, DART+ is set out under five headings. If you take DART+ West, Iarnród Éireann published the preferred option for public consultation, with consultation closing on 6 October. On DART+ South West, the second round of the public consultation process on the preferred route was held during November and December. On DART+ Coastal North, there is an initial public consultation project for an emerging preferred route for the DART+ Coastal North project. The DART+ Coastal South project is at an early stage of development and it is currently planned to launch the initial public consultation in the middle of this year. The DART tunnel is similar.

Moving on to BusConnects, if the committee will bear with me, I will find a relevant piece here.

In line with the public spending code, the preliminary business case for BusConnects Dublin has been provided to the Department of Transport. It is currently being reviewed prior to a Government decision.

On MetroLink, it is stated that it is anticipated that a railway order application will be submitted to An Bord Pleanála at the end of the second quarter of this year, subject to Government approval of a preliminary business case. To be honest, I was a bit taken aback by where progress with the DART, BusConnects and MetroLink projects stands. The other thing I was taken aback by is the combined sum of €223 million has been spent on this preparation work. Some of them are from way back. There is a long way to go. The witnesses know that and I know it from reading through those documents. Is the amount of money involved as regards preparation work not excessive?

The second question, and I ask the witnesses to keep their answers brief because I have a few other questions, is how much more is it estimated to cost to get it to the stage where we will see JCBs on-site and shovels in the ground? How much more will cost in preparation work for those projects?