Noel Rock (Dublin North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The genesis of this project is in Forfás in 1974. The most recent iteration which lives in memories such as my own is metro north, which was announced in 2007. Some 12 years later, we are no closer to getting a shovel in the ground than we were then. That is my concern and that of the north side of the city. It should be the concern of the entire city because unless we get the shovels in the ground for the metro project, this promise will remain unfulfilled. As it stands, north side communities, such as Ballymun, Santry and Swords in Deputy Farrell's constituency, and the airport are still under-served by public transport. Some 30 million passengers go through the airport, with 10 million tourists coming into our country, all of which are great numbers for the Minister's Department, and they are a credit to him. A real credit to him would be to see a legacy project such as this get a shovel in the ground immediately. Everybody in this House can see that the timelines are slipping due to a southside squabble. The northside disagreements on the route have been resolved and the route has been agreed. If this slips further, does the Minister simply intend to watch the NTA push these timelines indefinitely into the future?

Accordingly, I would like a commitment from the Minister to at least discuss with the NTA the idea of separating this project into a first phase and a second phase, with phase 1 being the north side to the city centre, or Swords to the city centre - effectively, the original metro north - and phase 2 being the city centre to perhaps Sandyford, perhaps elsewhere. This possibility should at least be explored now, while we have time, the capital infrastructure budget and Project Ireland 2040 is proceeding, to get those shovels into the ground and get this project moving forward.

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