Minister refuses to ‘go public’ on metro cost

TRANSPORT Minister, Martin Cullen, has refused to reveal the estimated cost of a new metro service between Dublin city centre, the airport and Swords which is scheduled to be completed by 2012.

Mr Cullen blamed commercial reasons for his reluctance to outline the budget for a key element of the Government’s Transport 21 plan, which will become the State’s biggest ever infrastructural project.

“I’m not going to open the possibility of a mugging for the State,” he remarked yesterday at the official launch of the public consultation process for the Metro North project.