The Department of Transport has defended its management of the plan to introduce integrated ticketing on Dublin's public transport services which is running four years late and €20 million over its original budget.
As members of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee queued up yesterday to criticise the plan, department secretary general Julie O'Neill said she was satisfied money had not been wasted and the latest deadline for implementation would be met.
Integrated ticketing means that a traveller can use the same ticket, most likely in the form of an electronic "smartcard", to travel by bus, rail, Dart or Luas.
The project, first mooted 12 years ago, was originally supposed to cost €30 million. Now the budget has risen to €50 million because of inflation, the inclusion of recipients of the "free travel" scheme and increased contributions to transport operators.
Ms O'Neill said Dublin Bus would launch its interim smartcard ticket this summer, and Irish Rail would follow suit next year. Integrated ticketing covering the capital's transport services would begin as planned in September 2009. "However, in a project involving numerous organisations, and where there are many business and technical complexities, there are and will continue to be difficulties that will pose challenges to all participants in delivering on the agreed programme."
She expressed confidence that a "robust" budget and deadline had been set, and all the main companies involved were fully engaged. "We have unblocked the blockage, and we're moving forward." Final costs would not be known until the tendering process was complete.
However, Labour's Róisín Shortall said it was difficult to believe how it was taking 12 years to introduce the project. Integrated ticketing was not "rocket science".
She accused the department of "taking a back seat" when it should have been "knocking together" heads of the various transport companies.
Ciaran Cuffe of the Green Party accused the department of "taking your eye firmly off the ball" and allowing Dublin Bus and the Railway Procurement Agency to "go their own sweet way". He was "gobsmacked" by the suggestion that the project would cost €50 million.
Tommy Broughan of Labour blamed "hubris" in the department for the loss of time, and questioned whether taxpayers would end up having to foot the bill for the cost overrun.
Ms O'Neill said the targets were "challenging but achievable". The process was far from straightforward, and involved significant strategic issues for all involved. Dublin Bus, for example, had been anxious to get rid of its "rickety old" ticketing equipment as quickly as possible. The cost of integrated ticketing was to be met through savings made by the operators and "adjustments" in fares.
Mr Cuffe criticised the amount of the department's money spent on road infrastructure, and said the sums invested in public transport did not bode well for efforts to cut carbon emissions.
Fred Barry, chief executive of the National Roads Authority, said most new road projects led to a reduction in carbon emissions as they eased congestion and led to shorter journey times.
The committee also examined the growing backlog of people waiting to take their driving test. Ms O'Neill said the target was to have all 122,000 applicants on the waiting list at the end of October 2007 tested by early next month, and to be able to provide a test on demand (within 10 weeks) for all applicants by the end of June.
She said every time someone "opened their mouth" about road safety it produced a surge in applications to take the test.