Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for the opportunity to address this issue in the House today. I am taking this Topical Issue matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and it is his Department that has written the script.

Improving public transport services and infrastructure is central to improving citizens' quality of life and addressing our climate action challenge. This Government is committed to a fundamental change in the nature of transport in Ireland. As a Government we need to provide more options to people so they can make the switch to sustainable mobility. Within the greater Dublin area, work on both DART+ and MetroLink is continuing so they can become part of those options. DART+ is a programme which comprises five different projects, each of which is moving at different speeds and is at different stages of development, while MetroLink is likely the largest ever public investment project in the history of the State.

I have seen the media reports of recent days and think it useful to clarify what the current position is with both of these proposals. Both face imminent and important milestones in the coming months and these milestones will determine the progress of each in the coming years.

First, there is the Government's approval of the preliminary business case and, second, there is the submission of a railway order application to An Bord Pleanála. There has not been any impact on either of these two very significant milestones over recent days.

On the first milestone, the Department of Transport has received preliminary business cases for both. This represents decision gate 1 under the public spending code and those preliminary business cases are under review. For major projects like DART+ and MetroLink, the public spending code requires a Government decision and the Minister, Deputy Ryan, expects to seek such a Government decision in the near future. If approved by Government, that will allow the contracts to be signed on the DART+ fleet and will also allow MetroLink and DART+ West move into the statutory planning system, subject to the completion of the necessary planning and environmental documentation.

The second impending milestone is the submission of railway order applications for DART+ West and MetroLink. Those applications require the finalisation of an extensive set of documentation, including environmental impact assessment reports, and work is ongoing on both projects.

On MetroLink, the Minister informed the House last week of his understanding that an extensive body of work remains on finalising the preliminary design, completing the required environmental impact assessment reports and closing out property referencing issues. The Minister stated his understanding that this work would be completed during the first quarter of next year and, subject to the Government decision I mentioned earlier, the project will then be ready to seek planning permission.

On DART+, the most advanced of the proposed infrastructure projects is DART+ West. The second round of public consultation on DART+ West is ongoing until the end of this month. Issues raised during this consultation process, including those raised by public representatives, will need to be fully considered by the company and appropriately addressed before they are ready to enter the planning system, and that can take some time to complete. Once that is done, and similar to MetroLink, DART+West will then move into the planning system subject to Government approval and finalisation of planning documentation.

It is the case that these two milestones, Government approval and railway order application, are the fundamentally important ones for each of these projects. I reassure Deputies that there has been no Government decision to defer construction on either project. The key focus at a project level is to get the necessary documentation finalised to allow for a planning application and the key focus at departmental level is to conclude the review of the preliminary business case. I am happy to confirm the work is continuing on both with important progress expected in the coming months.

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