Bernard Allen
Ceist:199 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the amount of money which has been allocated and spent to date by her Department in each county under the National Development Plan. [26536/01]
Vol. 543 No. 2
199 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the amount of money which has been allocated and spent to date by her Department in each county under the National Development Plan. [26536/01]
Over the seven years of the national development plan, it is proposed to invest £2.2 billion, 2.8 billion, in public transport. The Greater Dublin Area will benefit from a £1.6 billion, 2.03 billion, investment in public transport and £650 million, 825 million, is being allocated under the NDP proposals to address regional transport requirements.
It is not possible to provide a breakdown of the expenditure to date on a county by county basis. However, overall to end-June 2001, almost £451 million, 573 million has been spent on public transport projects. The main objectives of the investment is to upgrade the mainline rail infrastructure, rolling stock and facilities; upgrade the suburban rail and DART network; develop the light rail network; develop the bus services in Dublin, in the major provincial cities and towns and to develop and improve rural bus services. These combined objectives will be achieved through: mainline rail investment in safety and renewal; enhanced suburban rail services through increased capacity on the DART and outer suburban rail services; increased frequency of suburban rail services; introduction of the LUAS services in 2003; regional bus improvements (provincial cities, rural and main routes from and to Dublin; Dublin city bus improvements; ongoing fleet replacement and re-equipment by Bus Éireann and Bus Átha Cliath; and accessibility improvements to existing public transport infrastructure and facilities.
The NDP monitoring committee established by my Department, which includes representatives from the CIE Group and the Department of Finance, is responsible for overseeing progress, both financial and physical, of the public transport projects.