Luas is on time and on budget, Ahern insists

The Luas tram system in Dublin is on time and on budget, and when it is completed there will be "a clamour for extensions" to it, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, insisted yesterday.

Mr Ahern clashed with the Labour Party leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, who described the Luas at the weekend as "shaping up - unenviably - to be the most expensive light-rail project in Europe, if not the world; many hundreds of millions over budget and years behind schedule".

But speaking as he opened the second West Link bridge in west Dublin yesterday, Mr Ahern maintained that when changes to the Luas scheme required by the Government were considered, then the construction of the two lines were neither behind schedule nor over budget.

Mr Ahern, who said he was "very excited" by the scheme, said it was "doing what we had never done before, building 25 km of railway in a city. I am sure that when it is open a month everyone will be excited by it and there will be a clamour for extensions here, there and everywhere," he said.

The Taoiseach's remarks came in the wake of comments by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, that aspects of the Luas were "a mess", particularly at the Red Cow Roundabout - or "Mad Cow Roundabout", as it has become known - at the junction of the M50 and N7.

Speaking yesterday Mr Brennan revealed the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) was "basically opposed" to his plans for a "stilts-bridge" to carry the Luas across the roundabout.

"The issue is to see if the Minister's order is broad enough to cover the changes required by the bridge," he said, adding that the RPA had formed the opinion that it was not.

Should a new ministerial order be required for the bridge, then a new public inquiry would have to be held, which the RPA has said would take at least nine months. With construction of the bridge likely to take one to two years, it could delay the opening of the Tallaght line to 2007.

This would be in stark contrast to the Luas advertising campaign which claimed that the first tram would be in operation by the end of 2003, and after that "every five minutes".

Mr Brennan is in favour of building the bridge and said he was hopeful that it could be done without a new inquiry. "We are getting the legal advice. When that comes back we will know," he said.

Speaking in Co Carlow at the weekend, Mr Rabbitte said that given the cost overruns of the Luas and the Dublin Port Tunnel, the rationale behind the projects must be questioned. "In any other civilised country it would be simply unthinkable that after years of disruption and hardship the minister responsible declares a major interchange a mess, as if somehow someone other than his government was responsible."

Mr Rabbitte said his information was that the bridge on stilts would cost €60 million and not €20 million; it would take two years to implement, it would undermine the nearby park-and-ride facility, and it would not solve the problem.