Transport minister to seek approval MetroLink 'delivery body'

Transport minister Darragh O’Brien will seek Cabinet approval to establish a new ‘delivery body’ to oversee the development of Dublin's MetroLink. Picture: Conor Ó Mearáin/Collins

The Government is to establish a new agency to oversee the delivery of Dublin’s MetroLink.

Transport minister Darragh O’Brien will on Wednesday seek formal Cabinet approval to establish a new ‘delivery body’ to oversee the development of the huge infrastructure project.

The proposal will require draft legislation to underpin the new agency, with Mr O’Brien expected to bring forward the general scheme early next year.

It comes a month after the project received planning permission from An Coimisiún Pleanála, three years after being sought by Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

The line, which will stretch almost 19km, will run every three minutes from Ranelagh to the south of Dublin city centre and serve 16 stops to Swords in north Dublin, taking in the airport on the way.

In July, the project received €2bn in funding to give “certainty” towards delivering the metro.

Meanwhile, enterprise minister Peter Burke will get permission for legislation to provide new powers to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).

These include stronger powers to deal with competition law breaches and tools to tackle bid-rigging.

It will also see the appointment of two new directors and a senior leader to the CCPC.

At the Cabinet meeting, communications minister Patrick O’Donovan will seek approval to draft new laws on gigabit broadband infrastructure.

These laws are to give effect to a new EU directive, which aims to make the rollout of broadband faster and cheaper.

This law will require fibre-ready infrastructure to be included in all new or majorly renovated buildings, alongside sharing access to existing public and private infrastructure.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, meanwhile, sought formal agreement on behalf of minister Mary Butler, for the date of the next Census — which will now take place on May 9, 2027.

As part of the proposals, the next Census will include an online form option and will instead count where people are normally resident rather than where they are on the night of the Census.

Agriculture minister Martin Heydon, meanwhile, will update Cabinet on the recent outbreaks of avian flu in turkey flocks.

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill will also update Cabinet on urgent and emergency care.

Ms Carroll MacNeill will outline that there were 1.34 million presentations to emergency departments in the first 10 months of the year, up 4% on the same period of 2024.

The update also shows there were 81 patients waiting on trolleys as of 8am on the October bank holiday weekend, 14% fewer than the previous October bank holiday.