Vol. 530 No. 6
146 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Public Enterprise her plans in respect of the Luas and a metro for the Dublin North-West constituency; the proposed timescale involved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4929/01]
Proposals for a metro, the extension of Luas lines and for a number of other proposals leading to an integrated public transport system for Dublin are incorporated in the Dublin Transportation Office's strategy, 2000-2016, "A Platform for Change", which was presented to the Government last year. Included in the metro and Luas proposals are a number of routes in the Dublin North-West constituency.
The Dublin Transportation Office is currently preparing an implementation plan for the strategy. The DTO has set out a target of early March for the completion of this work, which will then form the basis for Government decisions on the various projects proposed.
However, the Government has already approved, in principle, the development of the metro system. Immediately following this decision, in July 2000, I asked the light rail project office of CIE to commence the necessary preparatory work on the metro and report progress to me on a regular basis. This work is proceeding and I hope to bring specific proposals to Government shortly.
In order to ensure that the delivery of the metro and Luas lines has the necessary focus, I propose to establish a railway infrastructure agency which will be given responsibility for exploring the potential for public-private partnerships and for procuring new rail-based infrastructure. The Bill providing for the establishment of the agency will be published next month.
While I am not yet in a position to say what the timescale for delivery of the various projects will be for Dublin North-West, I hope the establishment of the new agency will facilitate the rapid development of the metro and additional light rail lines throughout the city.
