Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

On the issue, to which the Deputy referred, I was very pleased to have concluded all the negotiations in recent days and to have brought a very strategic, important and fundamental reform package to Government, which will at last remove the 1932 Act, provide 100 buses for passengers and commuters in Dublin, provide 160 buses to Bus Éireann for the regions throughout the country, and, for the first time, allow for a Bill to be brought to Government shortly that will allow the private sector to participate in on-street delivery of buses, thereby expanding the bus fleet in Dublin and throughout the country. That is the sort of progress that would not be possible for Fine Gael and Labour to make. All the bleating in the world will not change that fact.

There has been considerable success in recent years in managing the delivery of public transport projects. No major CIE projects have had cost overruns in the recent past, with a number of projects including the Heuston Station project, the DART upgrade project and the Drogheda railcar depot coming in under budget.

A group responsible for the high-level monitoring of Transport 21 on a national basis has been established. The group comprises representatives of the Departments of Finance, Transport, the Taoiseach and the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, and the National Finance Development Agency. The CEOs of Transport 21 implementing agencies attend the meetings as invited. In the first year of implementation, considerable progress has been made in advancing the two key strategies of Transport 21, namely developing a high quality national roads and public transport network together with transforming the transport system in the greater Dublin area. I have already dealt with the roads programme.

In Dublin, the public transport system is well on the way to being transformed with substantive progress on the two metro lines, the seven Luas projects, the Kildare route project, the Navan line project and the new Dublin Docklands station. Nationally, heavy rail projects such as the western rail corridor, the Cork commuter rail project, the intercity rolling stock replacement programme and the Portlaoise railcar depot have all been progressed. Public consultation on metro north commenced earlier this year and is at a very advanced stage. The RPA is in discussions with the local authorities and developers regarding exact route options for metro west.

The green Luas line from St. Stephen's Green to Sandyford will be extended to Cherrywood and Bray. The railway order for the Cherrywood extension has been granted and construction will commence in 2007. Public consultation on route options for the extensions to the Bray environs has commenced. The green line will also be extended northwards to interchange with the red line in the centre of the city and onwards to Liffey Junction where it will interchange with the Maynooth and Navan line. This has the potential to add another 7 million passenger journeys to the Luas each year as a result of simply connecting the lines. The greater impact will come when metro north comes into being and all these significant methods of public transport will interact and interchange with each other.

There will be fundamental roles for bus, light rail, the DART system with the interconnector and the impact of metro north and metro west on our great capital city. The red Luas line will be extended to the Dublin Docklands and also to City West and we have progressed that development. I expect to make a decision shortly on the railway order for the Dublin Docklands extension, which is scheduled for completion in 2008. Public consultation is ongoing on the City West extension and the RPA is expected to lodge a railway order application for this in early 2007.

Considerable developments are also taking place on the heavy rail network. I recently agreed to grant a railway order for the Kildare route project and the text of this order is being finalised. The project will double the number of tracks to four between Cherry Orchard and Hazelhatch on the Kildare rail line which will allow for two dedicated tracks for commuter services and two for intercity and other suburban services. Many new stations will be added, for example, at Adamstown, Lucan, Balgaddy and Park West. It will give greatly increased capacity on the Kildare commuter services.

The western rail corridor project was launched last week and involves the phased opening of the rail lines in Ennis, County Clare, and Claremorris, County Mayo. I approved funding for phase 1 from Ennis to Athenry and phase 2 from Athenry to Tuam. Works are due to commence in 2007. Phase 3 from Tuam to Claremorris is scheduled to go to planning shortly.

The Intercity rolling stock replacement programme involves the purchase by Iarnród Éireann of 217 new rail carriages to replace the current fleet. We are replacing the entire Intercity fleet. Four or five years ago, who would have believed that by 2008 we would have the most modern railcar system of any European country?

See this speech in context