Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for joining us in the House, although I must say it is a real pity that the Minister for Transport is away on business because of the serious nature of the leak that we are discussing today in respect of the MetroLink project.

We are all aware, based on the last presentation from TII which was only two weeks ago, that the MetroLink project was supposed to be completed in 2027. Last Sunday, the Irish Mail on Sundayreported that work on the MetroLink project will not commence until 2027 and will not be completed until 2034. Some of us are old enough to remember when MetroLink was first mooted for north County Dublin. It was officially announced in Transport 21 back in 2005 when the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government was promoting efficient transport, probably before its time. Now, in 2021, instead of cutting the ribbon to mark the start of work on this particular project, the people of Dublin North are finding out from a leak in a Sunday newspaper that the project is now not going to be delivered until 2034. To be honest, there is no explanation that would make it acceptable to have a delay on top of the delays that we have experienced before.

Public transport is not just a response to the current climate crisis that we are in; it is an immediate need for the people in north County Dublin and north Dublin. We have been waiting on it for bloody well donkey's years. If there is one thing that we have all learnt in the last 18 months in respect of the positives from the pandemic, if there ever were any, it is about the quality of life and how much it has improved. We have learnt that getting back the time we previously spent commuting in the last number of years, because we have been able to work remotely, has enhanced our quality of life. Many of us have also realised that what is important in life is our children, friends and family and spending quality time with them. The hardworking people of Dublin North deserve the opportunity, after years of promises, to be able to avoid what we have seen for many years as the gridlock that starts at CityNorth Hotel just outside Gormanston. From 7 a.m., people are sitting in their cars waiting to get onto the M50 right back up to County Louth. The hard-working people who are travelling to and from work deserve an efficient transport system sometime in the 21st century.

MetroLink is about the efficient movement of people. As far back as when I bought my first house in Swords in 1996, it formed part of the sales brochures of what was to come for Swords. Here we are now, 25 years later, being told by a Sunday newspaper that decisions have been made to push the project back to 2034. We heard a statement from the Minister yesterday that he is committed to providing high-quality public transport in the greater Dublin area, that the national development plan includes these projects and that following consultation with his Government colleagues, a report will be published in the next few weeks.

I spent four years sitting around a Cabinet table and I know the kind of language that is designed to avoid giving bad news. The kind of language that was used yesterday does not provide us with the confidence we need that the MetroLink north project is on track for completion within a reasonable timeframe. If it genuinely is the Government's commitment to deliver top-notch public transport, we need somebody to come out and tell us definitively that what was reported in the Irish Mail on Sundayis wrong and inaccurate. We need dates of when the new development plan is coming out and an absolute commitment to the timelines that we are working on currently, which is a commencement this year or next year of a planning application and an actual live, working, physical metro train running from Swords, through Dublin Airport and into Dublin that will be active in 2027.