Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is a very large and expensive project, but it would be a game changer. It was estimated that it would increase the number of passenger journeys by something like 100 million a year. It would be a driver of the recovery of the capital city in efficiency terms. When the rules changed regarding how EU funding would be allocated in the mid-1990s, it was based on themes. One of the reasons we have the Luas and other public transport projects is the Government made an argument that Dublin was inefficient as a result of congestion. It is now estimated than in the next five or six years an additional 50 million extra people will travel in and out of the city every day. We are back to the futureand there is a point at which a decision has to be made on this issue. Perhaps European funds could be leveraged for the project.

See this speech in context