Funding of €2bn for Metrolink in NDP will provide 'certainty' on delivering rail line, minister says

Providing separate capital allocation 'gives investors certainty around working with the Irish Government and the Irish people on delivering Metro', public expenditure minister Jack Chambers said

The Metro, due to connect Dublin city centre to Dublin Airport, has received standalone funding within the Government’s revised National Development Plan.

Providing €2bn in funding to the Metrolink project will provide “certainty” on delivering the multi-billion euro underground rail line, public expenditure minister Jack Chambers has said.

The Metro, due to connect Dublin city centre to Dublin Airport, has received standalone funding within the Government’s revised National Development Plan.

Other projects have not been provided with funding yet, with Government ministers expected to set out their priorities in advance of October’s budget.

“By providing separate capital allocation and trajectory for Metro and the strategic water projects, that gives funding certainty and gives investors certainty around working with the Irish Government and the Irish people on delivering Metro,” Mr Chambers said.

“This is a project which we expect to draw down, in the best-case scenario, if the planning comes through, in the latter end of this decade.

“Then there’ll be further commitments out into the 2030s as it's delivered. I think it’s looking at that longer horizon and its funding profile, and that’s why we have it separated out from the specific transport vote.”

Finance minister Paschal Donohoe declined to give a specific cost estimate for the project, saying the Government would not say before procurement was completed.

Mr Donohoe said if he did, it would “influence the value” the Government would be able to get for the project.

“It’s the biggest single public transport project we’ll ever do and probably the biggest capital project of any kind that we’ll be completing across the 2020s and the 2030s,” Mr Donohoe said.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheál Martin described the previous Government’s policy of a two-to-one ratio of spending on public transport compared to roads as being “unworkable”.

“In terms of the so-called 2:1 ratio, I’ve never been of the view that it is realistic because of the timelines of projects,” Mr Martin said.

He highlighted the Metro as an example.

“When the big, heavy money gets to be spent on the Metro, you’ll be looking at 3:1 public transport versus roads,” Mr Martin said.