Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I agree with a number of points the Deputy made. We need to make a huge investment in public transport generally, but specifically in Dublin. I have not changed my view. When I came to conclusions having listened to everybody about what should be in the plan, I would not accept any attempt to alter the plan because it must be a fully integrated plan that will take Dublin into the future.

Deputy Mitchell is correct. This country is income rich but, as I stated recently, we are not public wealth rich. It is time we created the public wealth, like the investment in public transport and other facilities, throughout this country. I am happy that the discussions I have had with the Minister for Finance have gone exceptionally well. However, never again will I put myself in a position of guessing numbers on projects and finding myself back in this House hearing Deputies state that I said it was X and now it is X plus Z. For that reason, the due diligence that has been done on every single project with every single agency, the analysis, the cost benefit analysis, the real costs, the inflation costs and the projected costs all have been put into this programme. They have been scrutinised inside out. We now have almost completed that process and I will be ready to go to the Government shortly with the full investment portfolio. Never before in the history of the State has the roll-out of a project such as the ten year investment for the entire project come, side by side with considerable financial muscle that will stand up to anybody's scrutiny.

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