Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are still in the negotiating process, and the Deputy has been through this as well as a Minister. I am not going to say in front of the committee what is the upper level of what we looked at. Suffice to say we are having good, positive, constructive and robust discussions with our colleagues in the Department of public expenditure, but they are going well. We will be allocated an overall figure, which I will break down across our Vote. I do not expect the NDP to be project specific in relation to road A, B or C. We will get our allocation across the Vote and we will allocate that across the Vote areas in the manner in which I have presented them here today. Then we will break those programmes down. For example, with DART+ West, there is very good news on this in relation to planning, and we have a big programme in relation to rail and DART that I want to see funded through the NDP in order that we can start work on those projects, as well as on BusConnects. Our big focus is on public transport but there are other demands too, such as on the EV side. We want to look at a way to secure funding there too. In a matter of weeks our plan is, and it is certainly the desire of the Minister, Deputy Jack Chambers, to have this process concluded by July.