Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her question. She has raised this matter with me at every Question Time I have taken in the Dáil since I took over this Department. Her description of the project is accurate in terms of its future importance. The business case, which was published yesterday afternoon by the National Transport Authority and which I have made fully available to the public, illustrates that the assumptions made over a decade ago in regard to what transport use would look like in the future are very different from where we are now, although those assumptions were made for good reasons and I understand why they were made.

The tunnel alone is a €3 billion project. If I am going to recommend expenditure like that, which means I will not be able to do many other things, including things the Deputy has raised with me on other occasions, I have to be absolutely confident that this project is engineered appropriately, is cost-effective and will meet needs that we realistically believe will materialise. From my analysis of the business case, which is available for the public and the Deputy to see, it was very clear to me that there is a need for the tunnel to be redesigned. Money for that redesign is included in the capital plan that will be announced, as I confirmed publicly yesterday. Other elements of the project will go ahead, such as the extension of the Dart to Balbriggan and improvements to the control centre in the city centre to allow capacity to increase, and we will also begin the works in regard to rail electrification on the portions of the lines to which the Deputy has referred.

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