Project 2040’s big plan to transform transport
Transport, housing and healthcare Ten years of investment
PUBLIC transport in Ireland is set to be transformed as part of the €115billion spending plan to be outlined by the Government today as part of its Project Ireland 2040 initiative.
Plans for a metro to Dublin Airport and Swords; an extended diesel-hybrid Dart line to Drogheda; an expanded Luas service; a Cork-Limerick motorway and the possible construction of a light rail system for Cork are also expected to be outlined at the launch of the plan in Sligo this afternoon. The launch is expected to also outline plans for: New or refurbished court houses in several locations across the country;
The replacement or refurbishment of 90 community nursing units €1billion for flood defences New or refurbished ambulance bases at Ardee, Mullingar, Limerick, Cork, Galway;
The upgrading of the ambulance fleet;
An increase in the rate of energy-efficiency upgrades to homes from 30,000 to 45,000 from 2021, bringing them to a minimum BER rating of B;
The electrification of several commuter rail lines into Dublin with more services;
Greater use of the Phoenix Park railway tunnel.
Project Ireland 2040 would be an opportunity to put the last ‘lost decade’ behind us, the Taoiseach told businessmen at a Chamber of Commerce dinner in Dublin last night. Mr Varadkar predicted that once the ‘vast majority’ of people got to see and study the details of what was a real plan – ‘not one for everyone in the audience’ – they would be ‘very happy’.
‘It is a positive vision for the future. I think it is going to be good. It is a very ambitious plan, with €115billion worth of investment for the future.
‘I am very much looking forward to going to Sligo. Now that the economy is fully recovered and expanding again, it is an opportunity for ten years of investment in housing, healthcare, transport, enterprise and so many areas.
‘It is a real plan, and because of that, it is not going to be a case of one for everybody in the audience, because that wouldn’t be possible anyway in a ten-year period.’
The long-promised Metro North is set to be rubber-stamped in a multi-billion euro move under the initial ten-year National Development Plan (NDP), which also aims to free up land for housing.
The revised rail line will have an underground element which will run from Dublin city centre to Santry, but it will then be overground as far as the airport and Swords. Mr Varadkar said: ‘Metro North won’t be known as that after tomorrow... it’ll just be Dublin Metro. Because it won’t just be on the Northside.’
The surrounding areas have a number of so-called ‘brownfield’ sites, normally reserved for industrial estates, which the Government believes are prime for development. Proposals to extend the Luas to Finglas are to be given the green light, though it is believed that this will be part of the wider National Planning Framework which runs to 2040, rather than the initial ten-year NDP.
There has also been speculation that a decade-old proposal to extend the Luas to Lucan and Bray could be revived, but again would be pushed out beyond the initial ten-year time frame.
The possibility of a light rail system in Cork is also being looked at, along the lines of the existing Dart, although it could be 2035 before it comes to fruition.
Project Ireland 2040 sets out a vision for the next 25 years, preparing for a projected population increase of over a million people, and aims to bridge the gap in growth between Dublin and the rest of the country.
The €115billion budget amounts to a spend of around €5.25billion each year for the next 22 years.
The Government has been extremely tight-lipped about the contents of the plan, in a bid to avoid TDs from the various regions scrambling for a piece of the pie.
That happened on foot of the draft plan published last November, and the Government knows from past experience that giving in to local demands can undermine the purpose of a long-term plan with a vision for the future.
An NPF coalition group, made up of Labour’s Alan Kelly, Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin, Fianna Fáil’s Éamon Ó Cuív and Independent Michael Fitzmaurice, organised last week after suspecting the plan would deliver an imbalanced national economy. But Mr Varadkar has shrugged off criticism, claiming they are spooked by the potential of a success story for the Government.
FOR a Government that prides itself on its communication skills, when it comes to the much-heralded National Development Plan it is difficult not to conclude that it has made rather a mess of things. In simple terms, the Government didn’t get its ducks in a row, allowing, instead, an urban/rural rift to determine the issues and dominate the conversation in relation to the plan.
Most people around the country have been left feeling that they were not consulted on the matter, that their opinion wasn’t sought, their input simply not valued. So yes, the handling of the plan has certainly left a lot to be desired.
That said, what we need now to turn our attention to is the quality and achievability of the plan itself. Is it, in other words, a good plan or a bad one?
In reality, until we see all the fine detail, we won’t really know the answer to that question, but initial indications showing that improved public transport systems have been given careful consideration are certainly encouraging.
It is true, after all, that compared to other European capitals, our own capital city is woefully short of such transport options, the lack of any rail connection from the Airport to the city centre being one particular problem area.
The public transport initiatives that have been gleaned so far – the Metro North link to Dublin Airport, an extended Dart service along the east coast to Drogheda, a new Luas link to Lucan, a light-rail service for Cork city – are all essential services and crucial to the overall infrastructure. Cities around the world that are smaller than Cork, after all, have far superior public transport networks – networks that are vital to both residents and visitors of modern cities.
So, the fact that the emphasis in the National Development Plan appears to be on these transport matters is to be welcomed.
Doubtless, of course, all kinds of meaningless buzzwords and jargon are being dreamed up to convince the public that many basic and even long-time mooted aspects of the plan are, in fact, entirely new initiatives. It would be wrong, for example, for the architects of this plan to seek kudos for providing us with clean water, with roads, with hospitals – all basic requirements of any modern society, all things to which we are absolutely entitled.
Overall, the process of getting the National Development Plan out of the starting blocks could have been handled better. We now have to wait to see if, as a whole, the plan makes sense.
Ultimately, however, it is preferable that we have a plan, a structure to work with, than no plan at all. Next time, however, the plan needs to be planned better.