Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

It is 12 years since this project was first mooted, having an initial cost of €30 million. The expected cost is now €50 million, so there is an appalling waste of public money. The project is €20 million over budget at the moment, almost as bad as the electronic voting machines debacle, a mess with which the Minister was also involved.

The Dublin transport authority Bill is not yet in place although we had it in place in the 1990s. There is no person in overall charge of the transport issues in this project. Does the Minister accept the technologies exist in many other countries but the personalities are not the same in different countries? In this case, there have been turf wars between the likes of Bus Éireann, Iarnród Éireann and private operators. Can the Minister do more in the interim to deal with this issue more effectively and efficiently than as announced in his timeframe?

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