Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

Yesterday An Bord Pleanála gave final approval for metro north, a crucially important piece of infrastructure that has been at the planning stage for a number of years. Land has been purchased and €80 million has been spent on the project. It would create 6,000 construction jobs and has the potential to create 37,000 permanent jobs post construction. Given An Bord Pleanála has sanctioned final approval, will the Government reaffirm the commitment of the Fine Gael deputy leader who said the project would deliver 37,000 jobs in the economic corridor along the proposed metro north route? The Minister for Social Protection referred to the project as a "no-brainer". I agree with them but all the decisions on capital projects have been kicked into a review. The Government gave firm commitments on this project, which is crucial infrastructure not only for Dublin city, but also for the north east. Since approval has been given, can the Deputy Leader confirm that metro north will be given the go ahead in line with the commitments given to the electorate prior to the general election? Will the Government see that through?

Every day the EU-IMF deal is mentioned and I raised this with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources yesterday when discussing the Government's proposed sale of State assets. Can the Deputy Leader confirm that in the memorandum of understanding with the previous Government, no commitment was given to sell State assets? The revised memorandum published in July states, "The Government will consider options for an ambitious programme of asset disposal", and yesterday in the Dáil the Minister for Finance confirmed to my colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, that no figure was included in the original MOU for the sale of State assets and that the Government parties included a figure of €2 billion in the programme for Government.