Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

As I stated, everyone here is talking about a statement that no Member has seen. The Opposition is engaged in putting their own political spin on it. I am telling the truth as I am obliged to do in this House. I was not informed of this development and am not aware of any postponement of metro north, which should be delivered on schedule as far as the Government is concerned. While some completely unforeseen difficulties may arise and so on, as far as Government policy is concerned, the interconnector project and the metro project are the two key public transport projects. Moreover, as far as the Government is concerned, there has been no postponement. Furthermore, this would not be a policy decision on the part of the board. I make general policy and consequently, I await with great interest the information that I expect to receive from the board about this project.

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