Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I will respond on behalf of the Minister for Transport and the Marine, Deputy Dempsey, who is unavoidably absent. Metro north is a core part of the investment strategy set out in Transport 21 to provide a modern, high quality and high capacity public transport system to address the transport needs of the greater Dublin area. It is a critical project not only in meeting existing transport needs but in providing the transport infrastructure required to provide for future growth. Current projections are that the population in the Fingal area is set to double in the next 20 years and the absence of the high capacity transport infrastructure provided by metro north would represent acceptance of rapidly increasing congestion and deterioration in the Dublin area as a place in which to do business and live.

Metro north will provide a rapid, high-capacity, high-frequency link between Dublin city centre and Swords via Dublin Airport. Initially, an estimated 34 million passengers a year will travel on this service, with trains every four minutes and the estimated journey time from the city centre to Dublin airport will be less than 20 minutes. It will address a major deficit in public transport infrastructure in north Dublin by providing a high-capacity rail-based connection from the central Fingal area to the city centre. It will significantly enhance transport access to locations such as Dublin Airport, Mater Hospital and DCU and play a key role in the provision of an integrated rail-based public transport network through interchanges with Luas at St. Stephen's Green and with suburban rail at Drumcondra and St. Stephen's Green. Metro north, together with the Luas green line, also provides a new north-south spine to the rail infrastructure in Dublin, with a much wider catchment area than the DART.

It will provide park and ride sites at key locations along the route. This means metro north will benefit people from far beyond its immediate catchment area. There is a clear decision-making process laid out for major projects like metro north. All of these projects must comply with the Minister for Finance's capital appraisal and public private partnership guidelines. This has been done in the case of metro north. A statutory railway order process is then followed so that the relevant powers to build these projects can be obtained from An Bord Pleanála. Work is now well under way by the Railway Procurement Agency on the preparation of an environmental impact statement and the documentation required to support an application to An Bord Pleanála for a railway order. There will be a full opportunity for people to object or offer views and there will be a public hearing to air all the relevant issues. It will be entirely a matter for An Bord Pleanála to decide whether to grant a railway order.

Metro north must also follow a rigorous EU-mandated public procurement process. Only when this process is complete will we be aware of the full and final likely cost of the project. It is also important that the State's capacity to obtain full value for money from a competitive procurement process is not prejudiced by setting out in advance what we may be prepared to pay for such infrastructure.

Last month the Railway Procurement Agency announced the outcome of the first stage of the procurement process for metro north which involved the selection of those candidates who have been pre-qualified for the tender stage of the project. In all, 14 candidates have passed the pre-qualifying stage — four infrastructure providers, five rolling stock providers and five operators. Qualified candidates have until 2 November to form bidding groups. When the outcome of the statutory approval and public procurement processes are known the final business case for the projects will be submitted to Government for decision. The Government will judge all the factors — cost, economic evaluation results, land use and transport rationale when making its decision.

The Government will publish full information on the business case for these projects and the factors taken into account in making decisions on them in due course. This will be done when there is no danger that it will have a negative impact on the State's ability to get best value for money through the public procurement process. The basis for the Government decision will be transparent but it will be handled in such a way as to avoid compromising the State's commercial interests and, by extension, the interests of all taxpayers. Therefore, while I am confident Transport 21 includes an appropriate budget provision for the implementation of metro north, I cannot release details of the cost or other commercially sensitive material relating to the project. To do so at this stage would impact on the procurement process and potentially prejudice the State's capacity to derive maximum value for money from such a competitive procurement process.

I thank the Senator for raising this issue.