One third of €4.8bn going to build Metro

Just over one third of the €4.8 billion cost of the proposed Metro between Dublin city and the airport is to go towards construction of the project, the Railway Procurement Agency revealed yesterday.

The remaining two thirds, slightly less than €3 billion, are earmarked for non-construction items, including the cost of finance, insurance, arrangement fees, risk provision and VAT.

According to the chairman of the agency, Mr Padraig White, the "total current cost" of the Metro is €3.892 billion. This is made up of €1.72 billion for construction, €903 million for risk provision, finance and insurance, €811 million for cost escalation, and €458 million for VAT. But he revealed that under the public private partnership (PPP) agreement "the State eventually pays back" €676 million, while the arrangement fees for the PPP come in at another €313 million.

Mr White said the total project funding "in current money" was about €4.8 billion. He gave the figures to members of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport yesterday after they demanded a breakdown of the €4.8 billion Metro price tag.

Mr Eoin Ryan TD, chairman of the committee, said they were "absolutely amazed" that a global figure of €4.8 billion could be given, indicating what the State expected to pay, while the agency continued to argue that the detailed figures were commercially sensitive.

The Fine Gael transport spokesman, Mr Denis Naughton, asked if it was true the acquisition and demolition of a ramp at Connolly Station would cost about €44 million. The extension of the Luas line to the docklands which passes along two sides of the station and within metres of its rear entrance makes the Luas terminus in the footprint of the ramp unnecessary, it has been claimed. Trams serving Connolly Station and the docklands will now have to drive into Connolly Station and retrace their steps back to the docklands line in a complicated movement.

Mr Naughton also asked if it was true that the RPA would spend about €18 million in consultancy fees this year while staff had recently been told of uncertainty in their future following the completion of Luas lines A and B.

Mr Naughton and the Labour Party spokeswoman on transport, Ms Róisín Shortall, also criticised the on-going salary payments to the former chief executive of the agency, who still attends agency offices daily, although he has been replaced.

While the former chief executive, Mr Donal Mangan, is taking legal action against the agency, Mr Naughton said he knew of a similar case and asked if the agency was riven with dissent.

Mr White said the difficulty with outlining exact costs was in relation to releasing commercial information: "You don't want them to know what you are willing to pay," he said.

In relation to the building of a terminus at Connolly Station, he said it was done on foot of a previous railway order for the Abbey Street to Connolly Station line, while the extension to the docklands was a separate matter for a separate railway order.

Mr Frank Allen, chief executive of the agency, rejected the figure of €44 million for the acquisition and demolition of the ramp but did not supply a figure of his own. In relation to the dispute with the former chief executive, Mr White said it was "a matter for the courts".

He told Ms Shortall that as an independent organisation the agency did not have to seek approval for its appointment of a new chief executive from the Local Appointments Commission and the board had selected Mr Allen for the job.

Mr Allen told the committee that he did not have a figure for consultancy payments "off the top of my head" but he said €18 million had not been provided for the coming year.

He agreed to provide details on the amount spent on consultants at a later date. Mr White said the Dublin to Sandyford Luas line would be "operational in May" next year.