Transport plan ‘won’t turn Dublin into a building site’

THE woman charged with heading up the country’s ambitious transport plan last night pledged she would not let central Dublin become a giant building site for the next 10 years.

Speaking for the first time since being appointed to the key role of running the €34.4 billion road, rail and tram “master plan”, Professor Margaret O’Mahony admitted the Transport 21 initiative borrowed heavily from earlier schemes which had failed to take off.

The Trinity College professor of civil engineering, yesterday appointed to set up the Dublin Transport Authority (DTA) and be its first chairperson, said she was ready “to knock heads together” to get things moving.