Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I share the Deputy's ambition on this matter, as would most people. The two primary reasons we simply cannot extend DART+ to Kilcock at this point are linked to the way land use and transport planning works in the greater Dublin area and engineering. Uniquely in Ireland, there is a statutory transport strategy for the greater Dublin area and it has set the geographic scope of the DART+ programme. That scope is then reflected in all land use strategies for the area.

The strategy states that the DART will be extended to Maynooth, which is the planning context for the overall DART+ West project that will be considered by the planning authorities. The scope can be changed but that must happen through the review of the transport strategy, which will reconfirm the delivery of DART+ as it stands, but will also state that future extensions beyond the current scope be considered in the future as separate projects. We could extend DART+ West to Kilcock but it first needs to be reflected in the transport strategy. It will then be considered as a stand-alone project into the future.

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