Dempsey insists rail project still on track

Transport Minister Noel Dempsey has strongly denied that the Navan to Dublin rail link has been postponed in the review of the national capital investment programme. He said the planning process was in train and that, when that was complete, "the money would be there" to start work on the rail link. However, with no firm commitment given in the Government's capital investment programme published on Monday, doubts on the rail link's future have been voiced by local public representatives, who have also pointed out any delay in the provision of the rail line would also impact on future plans for the new regional hospital, to be located in Navan. Deputy Shane McEntee said the minister had given no indication of how the €587 million cost of the rail line would be funded, given that it is not in current capital spending plans as set out in the Government's review. The review states that phase one of the Navan rail link from Dublin to Dunboyne is a priority which will be completed this year and a railway order in respect of phase two, the Dunboyne-Navan line, was currently being prepared. Barry Kenny of Iarnrod Eireann said the process of preparing a Railway Order and the design of the project would continue. "We will be bringing projects to a point where we can hit the ground running when money becomes available," he said. Mr Dempsey hit out at critics saying that "somebody had been busy feeding out negative stuff" about the project. "It (the Navan rail project) is still there. It is still progressing and, when the money is needed to complete it, it will be here," Mr Dempsey predicted. The minister said he had spoken to the chairman of CIE, John Lynch, who had indicated to him that the movment towards making a Railway Order for phase two of the project was progressing. Mr Dempsey said this was due by spring of next year. "There is no such thing that the Navan rail project is gone off the agenda, no more than the Western Rail Corridor project is gone off the agenda," he said. He said he was the minister concerned with transport and the minister who had negotiated with the Minister for Finance and it was a fact that the Navan rail project had not been postponed. "I have made the it very clear that the project is going ahead as scheduled," he said. Mr Dempsey said that he was "very fed up of all this negativity" and criticised Fine Gael Deputy Damien English, in particular, who had been on Newstalk radio "telling people that the Navan rail project was not still there". He said that Deputy English should be the last one to be speaking about the Navan rail line. "When I first raised this with John Bruton, I was laughed at. But the project has been brought through a number of ministers since then and it is still there." Mr Dempsey went on: "That sort of negativity doesn't help me in securing the rail line for Navan. It undermines my authority when I'm trying to deliver something for the county." However, Deputy English said he believed the rail link had been put aside as there was no mention of it progressing in the review. "From day one, I called for the rail link to be developed in one go. I warned that the Government might stop work when the line reached Pace. And now that 1,200 parking spaces have been built at the Pace park and ride facility, it looks like Fianna Fáil never intended the line to go any further," he said. Deputy Shane McEntee said the issue raised serious questions about Noel Dempsey's influence at Cabinet level. "Meath is the only commuter county around Dublin which still doesn't have an effective rail link. Although the station at Pace will be important, commuters will still have to drive almost to the county boundary to use it," he said. "While the M3 motorway is vital, it is clearly being used as an excuse by the Government not to extend the line further. The Navan rail link would only take around 12 months to build. There's no reason why it can't be done," he said. Cllr Joe Reilly said that the minister had, at one time, pledged the rail link would be operation in 2004, he then insisted it would be complete in 2008 was was now promising it would ready in 2015, so he said he was taking his current pledge with a pinch of sale. He said any delay in providing the rail link would be a major blow to the economic future of Navan and Meath and the development of Navan as a primary growth centre. The president of Navan Chamber of Commerce, William O'Reilly, said the Chamber would be disappointed if the rail link didn't proceed as planned. "It is our understanding that it has been postponed and we understand from Irish Rail that they will continue with the design and the Railway Order," he said. Mr O'Reilly said they would be in contact with the minister to seek assurances that the project would not be shelved indefinitely. Cllr Peadar Tóibín said the rebuilding of the Navan to Dublin railway line was of major importance and has been a hot political topic for the past 20 years. "Minister Dempsey first promised that the Dublin to Navan rail line would be built by 1997. In 1997, it was postponed to 2000. It 2000, it was postponed again and Noel Dempsey promised it for 2010. In 2007, it was postponed again and promised for 2015," he said. He said the minister had spent the greater part of his political career promising a railway line for Meath and any delay in providing the line would be a devastating blow for the town of Navan. Cllr Anton McCabe said the county of Meath, and indeed the town of Navan, was depending on the railway line to encourage investment and thus create employment in our county. "The rail link and the state-of-the-art hospital were promised to the electorate in the lead up to the last general election, but the Fianna Fail party in Meath have run out of carrots, and have let down the county yet again," he said. Cllr Maria Murphy said a failure to proceed with the Navan link would have a negative impact on the service from Dunboyne rail station as it would dramatically increase the demands on that station. She believed any delay would cast a long shadow on efforts to attract industry to Meath.