Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

The word substantial in the reply was directed at answering the concerns raised by the article to which the Deputy, rightly, adverts, whereby someone decided that the metro project was going to turn into some kind of light rail project or something else. There is no truth to any of this and I can give the assurance the Deputy seeks. The project will go ahead as per the Railway Order with whatever changes are made by An Bord Pleanála, subject at all times to a cost-benefit analysis that will, necessarily, be done at the end. This happens with all major projects. If the Deputy is asking would I settle for a half-baked Luas or rapid bus transit system instead of the metro, the answer is "No". Such a system would be a waste of taxpayers' money. It would not be a waste of as much taxpayers' money perhaps, but it would be a waste nonetheless. The reason a metro was chosen and the reason the underground proposal was originally chosen for the metro system was to ensure we could get up to 20,000 passengers per hour travelling in either direction at peak times. That is what is required as the population of the north Dublin area could reach 500,000 or 600,000 by 2020.

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