Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I will give a general reply, though I am also aware of the specific issues.

Deputy Joe Higgins and everyone else must realise the economic development happening and the scale of infrastructural work. As I said yesterday, we are spending over €10 billion under the five-year plan, an enormous sum. That can be broken down into individual contracts, figures and areas, but we are spending enormous amounts. One cannot change every plan raised by everyone overnight. However, yesterday I stated in the House part of what has been delivered in road, rail, the Luas, the DART, the intercity line, aviation, and transport in general, which is enormous. The contracts are worth over €1.25 billion this year alone.

It is always easy to say there is another contract and ask where it is; everything has to be implemented. The whole idea of a ten-year envelope is that we get a systematic plan rather than the Department, the National Roads Authority or Irish Rail rolling it out separately and that a proper plan is in place for the engineers and planners involved.

Most of the projects the Deputy mentioned are in those plans. He asked me last week about the rail project in his own area, which is in the plan. These projects are part of the overall infrastructural plan and, as I stated yesterday, the roads aspect of that will be presented to the Cabinet committee in March and should be available after Easter. In the area of rail, the people responsible put forward their plan. Those responsible for the DART have published their plan up to the end of the decade. Most of those plans are in the public domain.

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