Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

Substantial progress has been made on Transport 21 since 2006. The five major inter-urban motorways and the M50 upgrade will be completed this year. The Irish Rail fleet has been renewed. The Cork to Midleton line and the first phase of the western rail corridor have opened and the first phase of the Navan line will open later this year. The Kildare railway line has been upgraded and a number of new Dublin suburban stations have opened. The Luas docklands extension opened last December and Cherrywood and City West are well advanced. More than 500 buses have been purchased.

The Transport 21 investment framework runs until 2015. While not all of the projects originally identified in Transport 21 will be completed by 2015, no projects have been cancelled and Transport 21 continues to provide the strategic framework for capital spending on transport infrastructure into the future. The capital funding allocation for my Department for 2011 will be determined as part of the 2011 budget process.

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