Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is regrettable that nobody from the Department of Transport could be here but I thank the Minister of State for being here this evening. This project has been around for decades. There have been plenty of false dawns. When Fianna Fáil crashed our economy off a cliff, it was shelved and delayed. People have bought homes with pictures of the metro they might be getting on going past their door. They are now looking at their children going off to school in great traffic jams. This is not just about the MetroLink but is also about the DART+ extension out to Balbriggan and serving all those towns along the commuter line. You only have to look around - I live in Skerries - to see children queueing up every morning to get into cars and travelling miles as they commute. The M1 is like a car park in the morning. We need to be taking cars off the road.

I very much hope the Minister of State has something better to tell us than the Tánaiste did today because his response to the effect that he had read the story and he did not know if was true is not good enough. The story referred to discussions that have taken place at Cabinet. I hope somebody was paying attention and that that person wrote the script for the Minister of State this evening.

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