Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

That was over 20 years ago. Now the assessment has been done and it has been decided that this is the correct strategic investment for us to make. We have to be honest with the people of Navan though. As I said earlier, we have €70 billion worth of projects and we have a €35 billion budget in this decade. It will probably be a similar budget in the next decade but we have to start planning now. As soon as the greater Dublin area transport strategy is signed off and approved we can start looking at timelines, costing and putting it into the project pipeline. In the meantime, there is a greater priority. I accept that on a wet day like today traffic snarls up for up to two hours; I hear the Deputy on that. We also need to invest in the BusConnects projects in Dublin so that in the interim, while we are waiting for the Navan rail line to be built, we get a high-quality bus service in and out because that is the only interim solution.

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