Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

No, that is not true. The subject never came up. I met the board members and the chief executive of CIE. I try to meet the boards of companies under the aegis of the Department of Transport once a year and it was such a meeting. In the middle of the day, I became aware of a statement issued by CIE and Deputy O'Dowd raised the matter in the House. Deputy O'Dowd suggested CIE had changed policy and decided the opening of the project would be delayed until 2018. Deputy O'Dowd asked if this was Government policy and I replied that it was not. It was not Government policy then but it is a fact that in the design phase of this project, it was estimated the DART underground could be operational within four and a half years of construction. However, when the project went into the detailed design phase, the company involved estimated the construction phase, including testing and commissioning, would take six years to complete. That is where the matter arose. It did not arise because of a change of policy or because CIE decided it would not follow Government policy.

Government policy on this issue is that it is delivered in the shortest timeframe possible, and we are now informed this is the shortest timeframe possible.

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