Transport plan just ‘a political con job’
The Government launched the hugely ambitious 10-year plan to overhaul the country’s road, rail and public transport systems in November 2005.
It refused to give costings of individual projects, saying they were commercially sensitive. It did, however, give timelines for when it expected the key projects to be completed.
But yesterday the Department of Transport confirmed that at least 10 of these projects were already behind time. They include the commuter rail service from Cork to Midleton, originally scheduled to begin in 2008 but now pushed back to 2009.
“Iarnród Éireann remains optimistic that passenger services will start in early 2009,” the department said. “The construction timetable is yet to be finalised with the contractors.”
Other delayed projects include the Portlaoise train depot; the linking of the existing Luas lines in Dublin; and the extensions of the Luas from Tallaght to Citywest and Connolly Station to the Docklands. Also delayed are the M50 upgrade, the Limerick southern ring road, the M3 and the N25 Waterford city bypass.
Fine Gael said the delays highlighted once again the “mess” Fianna Fáil had made of big infrastructure projects.
“Fianna Fáil announced Transport 21 with no cost-benefit analysis, no detailed costings and a completely unrealistic timetable,” said Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar.
“It was little more than a political con job whose results have been seen with… projects being delayed.
“Delays such as these will inevitably lead to a rise in costs,” he said.
Labour TD Eamon Gilmore echoed those comments, stressing the effect on commuters.
“Over the past 10 years, Fianna Fáil in government has had a very poor record on delivering major infrastructural projects on time and in budget.”
But the department said the original timetable outlined at the launch of Transport 21 was “indicative only”.
“It was designed by the department at a time when many of the projects mentioned were only at design/planning stage. Final completion dates for projects will only be determined when the planning process and contract negotiations have been concluded,” it said.
