Mr. Richard Logue:

Off the top of the head, I believe those estimates were made ten years ago. If one had been realistic, I will give the Senator a ballpark figure now, which is a cost of around €350 million to €500 million, which would still be a great deal cheaper than building additional roads. What people do not realise is that the construction cost of railway is cheaper than road but, as Senator Horkan has rightly said, one needs to have the volume. Dublin Airport has the volume for that, in addition to MetroLink. It is not a case of either-or nor should it be because the National Transport Authority chose its preferred route for MetroLink in the context of the Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area 2016 – 2035.

I am talking in the context of a national strategy. I actually arrived at the airport this morning from London, where I am based, and managed to get a train down but I took a local bus through Swords and Malahide to see for myself what the traffic is like down there. There is a great deal of traffic and it took me 45 minutes to get from the airport to Malahide Station. It took me 35 minutes to get to Pearse Station from Malahide, which I thought was pretty decent. We need to also look at the airport in the context of the national connections. One would also then have resolved a significant bottleneck on the existing railway which would give a benefit beyond the narrow benefit of getting trains to the airport.