Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 305: To ask the Minister for Transport the extent to which the Transport 21 proposals previously announced by him have been affected or are expected to be affected by the revised programme for Government; the way this compares with the previously announced programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6811/10]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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In Transport 21, the Government identified the programmes and projects in the national roads, public transport and regional airports sectors that it wished to see prioritised for implementation in the ten-year period from 2006 to 2015 within an overall capital provision of €34 billion.These projects and programmes can be found on the Transport 21 website (www.transport21.ie). However, in the light of the changed economic circumstances, it has been necessary to review investment priorities across all Government Departments. The results of this review are reflected in the Renewed Programme for Government and my Department's Transport 21 priorities for the coming years are as follows:

for national roads, the priorities are:

- the completion by end 2010 of the five major inter-urban motorways and the M50 upgrade

- the progression of the Atlantic Road Corridor.

for public transport, the priority is to deliver significantly increased long term capacity to the network through:

- the construction of Metro North

- the construction of DART Underground and the implementation of the associated electrification, signalling and rolling stock investments

- investment in buses, bus priority and real time passenger information, subject to the implementation of the recent cost efficiency reviews and the availability of subvention

it is important that we continue planning other projects to enable their earliest possible delivery when the economic situation improves.

These priorities for investment are set out in the Renewed Programme for Government.

It is unlikely that all of the projects originally identified in Transport 21 will be completed by 2015. However, no projects have been cancelled and Transport 21 continues to provide the strategic framework for capital spending on transport infrastructure into the future.