Unconvinced on funding for Navan rail line

Dear sir - Your recent report on the Navan rail line avoiding government cuts, while interesting, unfortunately does not reveal a huge amount about the government"s intentions on this vital project. Indeed a less charitable approach might say the real story was missed entirely. You correctly point out that the first phase to Dunboyne is confirmed and will go ahead. However this has not been in dispute, at least in recent times. An Bord Pleanala granted a rail order in February to Irish Rail thus giving the project the green light and this phase would not reach this stage if funding was not available. However, subsequent progress beyond Pace is far from certain. Indeed I would argue, contrary to government spin, that such a link is less rather than more, certain after the budget. There is no funding earmarked for the project beyond its inclusion in Transport 21, this document is merely a list of promises and has no standing in terms of planning and budgets. Alarmingly, the Book of Estimates actually shows a seven per cent cut in relation to the Department of Transport"s public transport public investment programme! This is the only real news in the budget about this or any other project. How can such promises be taken seriously when the budget needed to fund them is being cut and all there is to show to date are feasibility studies which are about 10 steps short of actual commencement work in this area? No application for a rail order has been made for the project and funding is scarce, these are the only certainties we know. The Government have made several promises on this and other matters. All commentators agree that several transport infrastructure projects are in doubt in the current climate. Would it not be better for the minister and the government to be straight with people about this? I would suggest, unfortunately, that we can only be certain that a rail line will extend beyond Pace when we see the sod being turned and no sooner and the Government should start being up front about the massive cuts they are implementing in public transport projects. Yours, Michael McLoughlin, Labour Party, Dunboyne.