McDowell returns to hustings with gusto
Furious senator’s onslaught on Metro route through his former constituency
MICHAEL McDowell has signalled his intent to return to frontline Dáil politics with an extraordinary attack on the proposed National Transport Authority (NTA) solution to the furore provoked by a proposal to build a Metrolink route through the centre of the upmarket Dublin Bay South constituency.
The original proposal was the catalyst for an extraordinary spat between Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy and his turbulent political protégé Kate O’Connell, who warned the minister to either assert himself more, or she would.
Now the embattled minister is facing more constituency troubles in the wake of rising fury over the proposed solution by the NTA.
Responding to anger that the Metro would create an east/west Berlin-type divide across the streets of affluent Ranelagh, the NTA now has two proposals to resolve the impasse.
The first is to build a €35million rail bridge at the key Beechwood intersection, bringing the Metro over the key connecting road.
The other alternative is to build a line eight feet below the surface of the road and let the train proceed through the junction without interfering with street-level traffic.
But, the solution and the project in its entirety has aroused the ire of the formidable McDowell, who has devoted an entire four-page constituency newsletter to the issue.
In it Mr McDowell describes the entire project as representing a plan ‘hatched in private, planned largely in secret and then presented for a phony public consultation’ which has already ‘gobbled up’ €170million.
Mr McDowell warned that the proposal would entail the complete closure of the Luas Green Line from Harcourt Street to Sandyford for the duration of the works, probably 18 to 24 months.
The former Tánaiste also said: ‘the Dublin Metrolink project, I regret to say, is rapidly emerging as a scandalous example of everything that is worst about policy making and governance in Ireland’.
Given, he said, ‘that the project, if constructed, would probably cost the taxpayer a further €3.5 or €4billion, you might have thought that before anyone spent €170million on preliminary designs and planning there would be a public debate and evaluation on whether the Metrolink project was a good idea’.
Mr McDowell said: ‘Closing and cannibalising the Luas Green Line service instead of increasing its capacity seems daft.
‘If any metro tunnel is to be bored as planned, should it not have its southern end at some suburb that has no service?’
The NTA is due to announce its proposals at the end of the month though this may move into September. However, the second most well-heeled constituency in Ireland is already up in arms and most of the political gun-fire is being directed at Eoghan Murphy, the eternally embattled current righthand man of Leo.
Within the constituency, however McDowell’s missive was described as representing ‘a declaration of intent to run, Michael has had his fun in the Seanad, but he wants back into the big league now’.
One senior FG source asked: ‘Who loses votes if McDowell runs? His votes are hardly Kate’s votes.
‘Don’t forget this is a constituency that has evicted two party leaders twice and nearly gave Garrett FitzGerald the sack. Noone is safe there.’
‘Cannibalising the Luas Green Line seems daft’