Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is much to discuss in the short time I have and I will not be able to get around to all of it. The national development plan involved a significant tour of the country. University heads and those in institutes of technology love to greet members of the Government in the forlorn hope that the visit and their hospitality would be followed by numerous grants from the Government. Billions of euro have been promised all over the country and part of this relates to the metro project. I have visited Na Fianna and Home Farm and the two local schools are also seeing an impact. Many of these projects have had no serious in-depth cost appraisal or analysis, and some serious economists have pointed out that despite the promises, there has only been a cursory economic analysis of things like the metro and other big projects. There were promises without any great analysis. I was once advised by a very wise city manager who has passed to his eternal reward that one must be very careful of engineers planning, as they tend to go as the crow flies and they do not very often look at what is in the way.

What is striking about Na Fianna is the extraordinary human resource, cultural, community and sporting endeavour that it represents. It has 3,000 members and is on 11 sites but this is its home. It is not just a GAA club but it is a community centre. It is the hub of the entire community. The value of voluntary human endeavour, which civilises a society and ensures an esprit de corpsin communities, would be wiped out without a moment's thought by a proposal such as the metro. It is extraordinary that in the Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, analysis, this area is not even identified as an obstacle. There are six major obstacles identified ahead of the plan but this is not identified as such. Home Farm has a pitch adjacent to the site. It needs a more holistic appraisal by the Government, and the Government must discuss this with TII and argue that it should go back to the drawing board and reconsider the options, and most notably this option. It has an impact on so much human capital. We have gone on about this in the north inner city and there is a project team dealing with the importance of human capital. This project would wipe that to naught and utterly destroy that human capital for a long time to come.

See this speech in context