Dempsey says Transport 21 to be fully delivered by 2015

Transport 21, the programme of transport projects announced in 2005, "will be delivered in its entirety" within the 10-year deadline, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has said in the Dáil.

The Minister described as "rather disingenuous" media claims that the programme was suffering from "insuperable delays due to the rescheduling of certain projects".

During a Dáil debate on the Transport 21 programme, costed at €34 billion, the Minister said it was on such a huge scale that "adjustments to the timescale for individual projects are inevitable". In a programme of "this scale it will be necessary to amend estimated completion dates as projects develop". It "has been necessary to revise the indicative completion dates for some projects because of circumstances arising before construction, while other projects have been delivered ahead of schedule".

Labour deputy leader Joan Burton had earlier highlighted delays in completing rail infrastructural projects. "All the completion dates are going back by one to three years, slowly but surely," she said.

The Cork to Midleton commuter rail service had gone back by a year. "Apparently technical problems are holding up the Limerick southern ring road. Even the Portlaoise train depot, which was to be built and available around now, is still in mañana land."

She asked: "If we want to do our business as a modern economy, where is the public transport? The integrated signalling for the Liffey Junction line is still years away, and in taking the train from Maynooth to Connolly Station, one finds the locals fondly call it 'The Calcutta Express' because people are jammed on trains and there is such a lack of trains." She said public transport was supposed to be transformed in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. But "here we are in November 2007, it is a rainy day out there and many women like me are having a bad hair day because there is no public transport".

Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O'Dowd called for the Comptroller and Auditor General to audit projects such as the metro "at a reasonable time so that it would not be merely a matter of taking the Minister's word".