first off there's the cost of this 9.5
billion euro let's just have a little
listen to what leo vrodker had to say on
news talks pat kenny show earlier on
about that cost estimate
there is
an extreme case scenario in the
documents where it could cost up to 23
billion and nobody thinks that's going
to happen by the way
23 billion
why did the tarnish that put that out
there today is it to make 9.5 billion
look like a bargain well we're not going
to build massive capital infrastructure
spending projects uh without spending a
few quid yeah there's a few quid
minimum 9.5 percent
if you put that figure out arguably i'm
really proud before it goes to tender
could be a lot higher i'm really proud
and excited that the government is
committed to a really large capital
project um in the city but also in the
in the surrounds i'm someone who got
into politics through computer activism
and i use the train to travel to the
dole most days of the week and i drove
up tonight i'm in the show obviously
yesterday i got the train
as frank was saying there is a
connection through the phoenix there's
already actually one there at the
houston line joins to the northern line
through the phoenix park tunnel which
runs underground phoenix park and i
would often have a pear street station a
walk around in the back edge of lancer
house so as someone who's i supposed to
spend a lot of time on the train going
to and fro i really really welcome this
and and we've seen the benefits of the
northern line and as ron said feeding
into north county dublin but also for
example for people coming in from
further feed like mike cersei and kadair
uh this connection through bass nevin
edward i'm just listening to what frank
had to say just about the lack of
connectivity to date yeah and whether we
could focus on other projects like dart
underground like other projects without
essentially i mean there will be
objections
to appoint sure there's also you know
ripping up the streets in order to get
you done you've got to do it i mean look
you you can pander forever to objectors
or you can actually do things like i
think i am just wondering about that you
say you've got to do it there's clearly
been no political will to do it to date
um i don't think there's been money to
do today actually and i think that we
have attention well it was a lot cheaper
years ago under athena fall government
was never i was an elected
representative then never mind part of
the government so i can't answer to what
happened 20 years ago and but what you
which you do have so retired activity
and so there is connectivity in this i
completely agree with frank and i would
also put the dart on the ground on the
map here am i listening to what frank
said about the dublin to belfast
rainline they're not much exclusive so
in almost any city in the world you have
multiple modes so you know you went to
jfk and you go to new york in the states
and you'll have heavy rain you have
light ray the other trams criss-crossing
against each other that's normal so you
know what we're beginning to imagine
here maybe we're not used to this kind
of big scout spending but it's a really
good thing it's really positive thing
well we're not used to it all coming
together it is literally like that joke
you make about waiting for the 46a and
then three arguably come at once marie
sherlock when you have
when um well not really when people have
been waiting decades for it james well
thank god for unified as a government do
they drink from them now
well i think
wants fina
well of course look at some other
parties
i mean i i'm half joking but no but the
government is too and in terms of the
costs
at this point james um do the costs
justify the the ends here what we're
likely to see um if this metrolink
project is built um beginning 2025. well
i think it's interesting back in 2005
the cost was 3 billion then so you know
to put in context if we'd actually
pushed ahead with the plans but look i
think you know in terms of where we're
at now i feel really strongly that we
need to push on with the metrolink
project for the communities on the north
side of dublin we see the population
growth 11 population growth in the
fingal area uh but also in terms of the
congestion and the air quality
in in the communities on the north side
of government we need this to be built
yes there will be enormous disruption
for for a decade 2034 is a long time
away um you know i had concerns about
minister ryan's comments last september
when he called metrolink an option he
seems to have you know i i suppose
dramatically changed that now we very
much welcome that we would have to
question the motivation of the thorns
today putting that figure out like
ultimately we need to to hear now from
government in terms of the funding that
they're willing to be put behind this
over the next number of years because i
think you know while we have this
announcement today we've yet to
really grasp how much money they're
willing to put behind it and
for nearly two decades as you've already
highlighted you know communities on the
north side of dublin have been waiting
for this project like and it's not just
a question of this new funding 250
million or 220 million has already been
spent that's the point
so we there's no option we have to to
proceed and look when it comes to our
record on capital spending i mean
we're not good at budgeting are we john
i mean look at the children's hospital
and what's happening there we're really
not good at keeping to a budget so 9.5
billion that's allowing apparently for
inflationary pressures but that's before
this even goes to tender so we don't
know what way it's actually going to
play out will they be able to do it
without the cost overruns but i think
it's completely unrealistic to project
cost
costings into 2034 for instance are like
there's even mentioned there in in some
of the press today
that the of the timing for train runs in
2060 now the worth of money in 2060 uh
it can't be calculated now um i i think
um marie referred to a three billion
costing back in 2005. i think it was
even later i think about 2011 still they
were at 3 billion and escalated to 10.
out to 9.5 now
i don't think they can cost it um it's a
matter of getting the thing politically
the political experience would be to um
get it done i mean there's been so many
options there's one option i always was
in favor of and i've been working on
this as a journalist since the mid-90s
there's a thing called the dart spur
which could be done very quickly from
clan griffin um station at a very low
cost and that's gone out the window as
well so they've decided to throw all
their eggs in this bathroom and i just
actually want to bring frank in on that
just on strategy here when like there's
all these different plans and different
ideas they haven't come to fruition is
there a core issue with with with
planning um big infrastructural projects
and connectivity in our capital
absolutely uh and in fact i was at the
the launch of uh
of the the earlier plans when i was
working as a journalist and environment
editor of the irish times and really
honestly you'd lose faith in politicians
uh uh and and and in the system in
general because of its failure to
deliver on these on these projects
and okay yes there was a huge financial
crisis following the property crash in
2008 and essentially what leo veradkar
decided then was that there were three
big ticket projects in for transport in
dublin one was dart underground
the second one was metro north as it was
then called and the third one was lewis
cross city and because lewis cross city
happened to be the cheapest at 368
million euro as opposed to billions for
the other two um leo decided to go with
lewis cross city and uh and you know
that's been a success in so far as it
goes in transportation terms but also
don't forget that it has littered the
main streets of our capital city with a
hundred and thirty poles standing in the
streets between
saint stephen's green and parnell square
actually just nothing to be proud of and
just to talk about the disruption and i
think murray mentioned it earlier that
we are likely to see disruption for the
next decade we're also likely to see
demolition opposition to all of these
things that could
uh certainly delay those plans and delay
that data sure so i remember i wasn't
politics at the time i remember when
lewis has been built up harcourt street
and the traders are out on the street
saying don't let this monstrosity come
on top of us how many of those traders
are now thanking the lucky stars the
lewis goes past their front door and
just in terms of the costume we talk
about different figures it's very hard
to push a long-term customer project
this size and scale this far out but
what i would say is all the figures say
there's a two to one three to one return
in terms of the economic and whether
this is not just economic this is
community this is opportunity this is a
you know distributed population there
are many many benefits to having good
public transport but if you do just look
at the cost of the economics two to one
three to one return economic return for
those routes be that in in retail be
that in employment opportunities be in
study opportunities these things pay
themselves back
time and time again and that's aside
from the community benefits the
educational opportunities uh distributed
population visiting family all those
kind of positives that come from a good
public transport system