A ‘feel of Guy Fawkes’ as Metro tunnel will go under Leinster House
Drillers under the Dáil set to shake up our politicians
THE Houses of the Oireachtas are set to be both shaken and stirred – once tunnelling begins along the new agreed Metrolink route.
To date attention on the route has focused on the over-ground consequences for Ranelagh and Dublin Bay South.
However, the final route for the underground section of the Metrolink has revealed that it will also rock the foundations of the state as it passes under the Houses of the Oireachtas and the National Library in Dublin 2.
The issue was raised by Senator Michael McDowell at a private briefing of political representatives by the National Transport Authority at Dublin’s Alex Hotel last week.
Mr McDowell asked officials what sort of impact the tunnelling would have, in terms of noise.
Responding to the queries, NTA officials conceded some form of noise would disturb the musings of our parliamentarians.
The official, on further questioning, conceded: ‘the disturbance will be like a washing machine in the room next to you.’
But Mr McDowell retorted: ‘Tunnelling under the national houses of parliament has a bit of a Guy Fawkes feel to it.’
But a possibly relieved Mr McDowell also revealed that: ‘the tunnel will go under the Dáil rather than the Seanad chamber, so the upper house will be spared the worst of it.’
One member said it would be terrible: ‘if our TDs and senators like David Norris have to shout even louder to be heard above the tunnelling. It will be interesting to see what the tunnellers will find. This is a 17th-century house. There could be anything buried down there.’
One TD warned: ‘It would be unfortunate if there was an ongoing rumbling, there is enough of that here already’.
Separately, controversy is growing over the plan to extend the tunnel by 650 metres beyond Charlemont towards Ranelagh.
Sources within the NTA said the tunnel would be sealed off for 20 years and would not be used for passenger traffic.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, slammed the proposal, insisting it was ‘crazy, they should keep going on to Donnybrook and UCD and linking up with Trinity college and DCU’.
He said: ‘it would be ‘economic madness to just create some sort of pharaoh’s tomb that will be sealed off for 20 years’.
Although the NTA said that the tunnel could be used to store trams, Labour’s Kevin Humphreys warned: ‘Past form does not rule out the possibility that once the election is over the NTA will resurrect the original plan to turn Ranelagh into Berlin.