Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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498. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the expenditure on metro north since 2005; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8523/18]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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As the Deputy is aware, the National Transport Authority (NTA) has statutory responsibility for the planning and development of public transport infrastructure in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) including the development of a metro scheme.

I am advised by the NTA that the expenditure on Metro North from 2005 up to the end of January 2018 is approximately €170 million.

As the Deputy may be aware, following consideration of the Fingal/North Dublin Transport Study and the recommendations of the National Transport Authority (NTA) arising from this study, the Government decided in 2015 that an optimised metro rail link as set out in the study is the long term public transport solution on the Airport/Swords corridor. In addition, the Programme for a Partnership Government includes a commitment to proceed with the metro scheme.

The recently published Project Ireland 2040 now proposes to take forward a Metro Link scheme to run from Swords, via Dublin Airport to Dublin’s south city centre (operating in tunnel under the city centre) and onwards to Sandyford using the existing Luas Green Line to ensure that growth along this corridor can be accommodated. This will provide Dublin with a high capacity, high-frequency cross-city rail corridor serving critical destinations such as Swords, Dublin Airport, Dublin City University, Ballymun, the Mater Hospital and existing destinations along the Luas Green Line to Sandyford. Metro Link will provide faster reliable journey times to and from these key destinations while offering interchange with other rail, DART Expansion, light rail and bus services. 

The next steps are that the details of the Metro Link scheme (Swords to Sandyford) will put out to public consultation in the coming weeks, with construction expected to commence in 2021 with a view to delivering the project by 2027.