Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for the opportunity to address this issue in the House today. As the Senator has already acknowledged, I am reading this into the record on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan.

Improving public transport services and infrastructure is central to improving citizens' quality of life and addressing our climate action challenge. This Government is committed to a fundamental change in the nature of transport in Ireland. As a Government, we need to provide more options to people so that they can make the switch to sustainable mobility. Within the greater Dublin area, MetroLink is certainly one of these options. It will facilitate the development of a better integrated public transport system - a system that will enable people to switch between bus, light rail, metro and rail, all under the umbrella of a revamped and integrated fare structure. We know this challenge will be an enormous effort and in many ways, MetroLink as a project represents that enormity. It will likely be the largest ever publicly funded project in the history of the State.

I have seen the media reports of recent days and I think it is useful to clarify what the current position is in relation to MetroLink. There has been no Government decision to defer the project. Actually, the project faces two imminent and important milestones in the coming months, and these milestones will determine its progress in the coming years. First, there is Government approval of the preliminary business case, and second, there is the submission of a railway order application to An Bord Pleanála. There has not been any impact on either of these two hugely significant milestones over recent days.

On the first milestone, the Department of Transport has received the preliminary business case. This represents decision gate 1 under the public spending code. That preliminary business case is currently under review. For major projects like MetroLink, the public spending code requires a Government decision. The Minister for Transport expects to seek such a decision in the near future. If this is approved by the Government, it will allow MetroLink to move into the statutory planning system, subject to the completion of the necessary planning and environmental documentation. The second impending milestone is the submission of a railway order application for MetroLink. That application requires the finalisation of an extensive set of documentation, including environmental impact assessment reports. That work is ongoing in relation to both projects.

The Minister for Transport informed the House last week of his understanding that an extensive body of work remains in relation to finalising the preliminary design, completing the required environmental impact assessment reports and closing out property referencing issues. The Minister stated his understanding that this work would be completed during the first quarter of next year. Subject to the Government decision I mentioned earlier, the project will then be ready to seek planning permission. An indicative timeline was published in the very early stages of the public consultation on MetroLink, which indicated a railway order application could potentially be made by 2019 and construction could commence by 2021. However, as I have explained, it is the case that no railway order application has been made yet and work is still ongoing to finalise the application. Clearly, therefore, construction work will not commence in 2021 and realistically, any objective timeline for the start of construction must await greater certainty on planning permission.

I can reassure the Senator that the key focus at project level is to get the necessary documentation finalised to allow for a planning application and the key focus at departmental level is to conclude the review of the preliminary business case. I am happy to confirm that work is continuing in relation to both, with important progress expected in the coming months.