€3bn Dublin Airport Metrolink project unlikely to be in use before 2035 

Peter Walsh, Chief Executive, Transport Infrastructure Ireland. File Picture: Keith Arkins Media

The €3bn Dublin Airport Metrolink project is unlikely to be in use before 2035 as a best-case scenario, the head of Transport Infrastructure Ireland has said.

Peter Walsh, the chief executive of the agency that has primary responsibility for the project, told the Public Accounts Committee that the best-case scenario would see the project take 13.5 years until completion from the current date.

That allows two years for a railway order to be processed by An Bord Pleanala, 2.5 years for a procurement process for a contractor — which is likely to be a Public-Private Partnership — and between eight and nine years for construction and commissioning.

He acknowledged that timeline does not take into account any possibly judicial review applications in terms of ABP’s planning decision, and that the timelines for such reviews could not be estimated.

Mr Walsh also described the initial project timeline outlined in 2018 of 2027 as “probably optimistic”.

Asked by Fianna Fáil’s Paul McCauliffe whether he could “recognise that people are frustrated”, Mr Walsh said: “I accept that you’re expressing frustration”. 

People’s frustration is something I can’t really comment on.

“A lot of issues were raised in consultation that had to be addressed,” he said of the initial public consultation process in 2018 and 2019, which saw the fundamental route of the 20-kilometre rail link changed after sustained pressure from the north Dublin residents set to be affected.

Asked whether or not he felt the initial target of 2017 could ever actually be met, Mr Walsh replied “it was felt that these should be targets we should aim for as they were set before we’d opened a book at all”.

He said that there had been pressure to deliver the then-current National Development Plan.

While he said that 2027 had probably been optimistic, he denied that resourcing of the project has been a problem.

“It is not a question of resourcing, we are adequately resourced,” he said.

Almost €250m has been spent on different iterations of the controversial project over the past 15 years. 

Some €70.9m of that spend reflects money for which no value has been returned, according to the National Transport Agency.