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

Excuse me. I did say "per day" and I thank the Deputy for enabling me to correct the record. It is per hour. My worry now is that every time I refer to the project, I will proudly refer to the introduction of a new service per day. There will be four additional services at peak hours in the morning and evening, with one additional service at non-peak hours. This will be a really big increase in capacity and I hope this will lead to us addressing a point made by Deputy Lawlor on the connectivity between the platform used by those services and the rest of Heuston Station. I acknowledge that because of where the tunnel is located, passengers may be brought to a platform that is a fair distance from other platforms in the station. If the service is as successful as I believe it will be, we will have to consider some measures to see how we can quickly get people to a location where they can use other services in Heuston or, more likely, the Luas platform. It is a distance that must be travelled.

Deputy Dowds made the point about how better to integrate what we have within the city centre. I point out the Luas cross-city project and the extension of Luas to Cabra and Phibsborough, as well as the joining of the Luas lines in the city centre. It is a long overdue contribution that this Government made to that process. When the original Luas lines were built, we were flush with money. I acknowledge the work of Deputy Varadkar, my predecessor as Minister for transport, and the entire Government, as at a time when we had so little money and we were at the depths of participating in a bailout programme, €370 million was secured for the project. I have continued with that commitment to ensure the work continues. The line will be open in 2017, with station construction commencing next year. Its opening is long overdue but it will be a very positive moment.

A number of Deputies made points when I was present and I will cover some of them, as I want to acknowledge the different issues that have been raised. Deputy Kyne spoke about the importance of the Galway bypass project and I know it has been very controversial. I have met families who fear for the very existence of their homes as a result of the project going ahead. I also acknowledge the point he made about the importance of a project like that for Galway city. I spent a recent morning at a transport forum in Galway and I am very much aware of the progress being made in Galway, which was acknowledged by many participants in the forum, but also of the needs that are still there to be met.

Deputy Seán Kenny expressed his disappointment about my decision with regard to DART underground. I have addressed the matter a number of times during the day but I will make two points briefly about it. I have stated very clearly that the tunnel needs redesign but a tunnel in some form will play an important role in joining our existing stations.

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