James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The metro will be capable of carrying 30 trams per hour, or one every two minutes. It will carry 30 million passengers per annum. The estimated level of demand for metro services is 17,000 passengers per hour. As I have said, it will have a capacity of 20,000 passengers per hour. This project is not just about connecting the airport, Swords and the greater Fingal area to the city; it is also about increasing the flow of people to and from the city. It is now proposed that the metro will extend right across to the south of the city as well. This will lead to much greater connectivity.

Enough land has been zoned near the town of Swords to facilitate the addition of the equivalent of a town the size of Balbriggan. There is a proposed metro stop adjacent to the zoned land. In addition, a metro park and ride facility will be available for that whole area and indeed for Louth and east Meath. As I have said, Swords could cope with 33,000 new houses, or 100,000 people. That is what the land is zoned for.

Dublin Airport had 30 million visitors last year and 32 million visitors are expected this year. We need to give them connectivity. Dublin Airport is one of the few airports in Europe, and perhaps the only airport serving a capital city, that does not have a rail connection straight into the city centre. This project is a win-win-win. Dublin Airport has been a super success story under this Government and its predecessor and we want that to continue. We do not want to see it lost.

The most recent cost-benefit analysis that was done on the metro project showed that for every €1 that is spent, we will get €2 in revenue. My message to the naysayers who do not know the difference between the tram, the Luas and the metro is "build it and they will come". For once, can we put facilities in place in our city and in Fingal before and as houses are built? By putting them in place years later, we leave our people with a poorer quality of life.