Sean Barrett (Independent)

Recently, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport announced that he will decide by the end of September on joining the two Luas lines and on the metro to the airport and Swords and that this would be published as part of the national development plan. I ask the Leader to communicate to the Minister that he should separate the two issues and discuss the Luas-metro issue here. We should beware preparing a national development plan by the end of September given that the last one to run until 2013 was sub-titled, A Better Quality of Life for All. We will be about 40% short of the incomes the last NDP planned. It was a programme twice the EU average and in view of the difficulties we have got into since, that may have been a bad idea. There is a lack of quantification, a lack of economics in Departments, a view that it was captured by interest groups and that it was too expensive. There is no urgency in preparing a national development plan by the end of September and, therefore, I ask the Leader to ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to address the Luas and metro issue separately and that drafts of the national development plan might be sent here first rather that we being presented with a fait accompli on 30 September.