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@Cathal Dunne wrote:

Only in an east to west direction. The DART is useless if you want to go to Swords or the city centre from Drumcondra. Once Metro North is completed Drumcondra will be served by rail from all the points in the compass. This will make the DART more effective as people can switch between it and MN and vice versa. As I said before, it’s a network externality.

Again with the short-termist thinking. The austerity programme is due to be finished by 2014. More tough budgets, economic growth between 2011 and 2014 and lower unemployment will see the deficit brought down. This is why, with a budget deficit larger than Greece’s last year, we can raise 90% of our funding for this year already. The present is tight but the future is bright.

Not really since Maynooth is about the same size in a similar residential area and yet supports a heavy rail station. MN is light rail so should see plenty of business along this area.

Yes, I agree runaway spending was stopped after 1987 producing the fiscal stability necessary to boom in the 90s. However it is untrue to say that capital spending needed to be brought under control since there was little or none of it during that time. This left us with a creaking infrastructure which was about 30 years behind average European standards and resulted in gridlock once our economy revived. Infrastructure has always dragged down our competitiveness position internationally in indices published by the likes of the WEF and IMD. This makes it critical for us to maintain significant capital investment throughout this recession to ensure our catch-up continues. Thankfully, with the exemplar broadband network, intercity motorways, DARTu, Terminal 2 etc., we seem to be doing that. Once the recovery comes in this decade, we’ll have the infrastructure ready to accommodate it.

It’s not a white elephant. The cost is estimated to have fallen by at least 20% according to an article in last Sunday’s Sunday Times. The same article also points out that the cost-benefit ratio has improved from 1:1.32 to 1:1.5. That means for every euro spent on it, a gain of €1.50 is generated. Moreover, thousands of people will be employed during the construction phase. They will be paying PAYE, PRSI, income levies etc. which will reduce the net cost of Metro North.

Whether it’s 30m or 40m, a direct rail link from the airport to the city centre is a standard feature of European capital cities. Dublin has been lacking this for decades due to a lack of investment. Now, with MN, we have an opportunity to address this glaring omission.

Well the CSO has its population at about 30,000 already. While most Swordians may live far part if you’re to be believed, if they want to use MN and live out of walking distance, they can drive to the park-and-ride and then hop on. If you live within walking distance – no problem.

A two-lane motorway sustainable in an economy which had more than tripled in size? With about 3 times more cars, vans, trucks and buses? Rubbish. The M50 was built on the cheap during the 80s with little vision to how it would be used 20 years in the future. The result was 10 years of it being Ireland’s largest car-park. We had to spend a billion to make it the quick way to drive around Dublin it should have been.

If the Dept of Finance crunched the numbers and it supposedly failed, then how come it’s still an on-going capital project? Brian Cowen was Minister for Finance in 2004 and he was the man who announced a few months ago that MN was one of the projects included in the €39 billion capital programme. The DoF has the ability to kill projects it doesn’t like and yet they don’t seem to be doing that with MN. That means either they don’t believe in their 2004 assessment or they don’t care. Either way, it doesn’t do much for your position.

Well Frank McDonald is a man with an opinion on MN and good luck to him but he is just one man amongst many with a view on it yet he is gifted with a by-line to broadcast his views to the nation.

Irrelevant considering that most of the area is already quite built up and is a ready-made market for the MN. The only open ground MN traverses is around the airport and that’s to be expected anyway.

Not always a given with heavy traffic, roadworks, crashes and so on. Modern business depends on seamless and reliable service. A direct rail link between airport and city centre provides this.

I’ve dealt with this above when comparing DCU to Maynooth. In any case, DCU is a young and rapidly expanding university with a major venue – the Helix – on its grounds with an established suburb surrounding it. There is plenty of potential market there for Metro.

A station which is only useful if you are coming to Croke Park from the east or west. If MN was operational now, Down supporters could drive down to the Bellinstown park and ride and get the Metro to Drumcondra. Similarly, Dublin supporters from the west of the city could get the bus into Town and get the Metro from OCS or Stephen’s Green to Drumcondra. In addition to this, business people attending conferences at Croke Park centre and tourists going to the Museum could use the line to get there quicker and easier.

Or 2 hospitals less than 5 minutes from the Metro stop.

I’ve lost count the amount of times you have said that a location would not be adequately served because it only had one rail line. You need to address the following

The original MN proposition had a financial basis of

Annual Growth of 6-10%
Ability to levy development contributions of at least €50m per year for a 10 year period
The ability to price debt within 25 basis point of Bund

On that basis that a complete white elephant could be provided for in the run up to the construction period with 10 year planning permissions allowing about €250m pre-construction; €250m during construction and €500m in the decade post construction. That is half the sum the RPA claim it would cost to build.

Address the shortfall and please do not say that the season ticket holders of the Heilix will make it all up…..

Dempsey’s secret meeting with the ‘important people’

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/dempseys-secret-meeting-with-the-important-people-2297983.html

By DANIEL McCONNELL Chief Reporter

Sunday August 15 2010

A SENIOR minister was involved in a major row with a former ministerial colleague-turned-lobbyist at a behind-closed-doors meeting in Dublin last week, the Sunday Independent has learned.

Transport Minister Noel Dempsey was attacked by several of Ireland’s leading business figures over the cuts in government capital spending, its handling of the economic crisis and the expenses controversy at the private meeting hosted by a leading law firm in Dublin last Thursday.

Also in attendance was Dempsey’s former ministerial colleague Tom Parlon, now the head of the Construction Industry Federation.

Sources say Parlon “laid into” Mr Dempsey and the government’s cut in capital spending at a time of “famine” in the building sector.

The confrontation is the latest in an ongoing war of words between the erstwhile colleagues.

The meeting of 30 leading business, financial, legal and construction figures was held at the offices of lawyers Mason, Hayes and Curran in Dublin and was conducted under “Chatham House Rules”, meaning the details of what was said were to remain private.

However, the Sunday Independent has learned that Mr Dempsey, following a short address in which he attacked the media for being too negative and laid out the government’s budgetary strategy, began taking questions from the assembled group.

He prefaced his address with a request that those assembled tell him exactly what they think about the Government and not to hold back. According to sources at the meeting, several in attendance were “extremely forceful” in their criticisms. When it came Mr Parlon’s time to speak, things heated up.

Mr Parlon began his comments by referring to a previous attack by Mr Dempsey on him, when he said the construction chief was “talking out of his hat”. Mr Parlon responded by saying: “Now, we can all use colourful language, but based on our figures, you haven’t a snowball’s chance of spending the €5bn next year as promised.”

It is believed Mr Parlon referred to analysis that showed the Government was well behind on its own capital spending commitments set out at the end of June.

Mr Dempsey is said to have revealed that much of the €5bn promised for next year will not be used to start any new major projects, but will be used to pay off projects already under way.

Mr Parlon was highly critical of that, saying following the completion of major projects like the Limerick Tunnel, the Aviva Stadium and the Convention Centre, there is nothing left but “Mickey Mouse” developments.

“There is a real famine for decent work out there,” he said.

According to sources, the normally combative Dempsey eventually agreed with much of what Mr Parlon was saying.

Mr Dempsey’s spokeswoman said the meeting was “convivial but productive”.

She said the minister had gone to hear from important people who create jobs on how the Government can be doing more for them.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/markets-lose-faith-in-vulnerable-ireland-2297951.html

Can you post the actual decision; it is unlikely that they would refuse on a single ground; was it in a retail park with a ‘bulky goods’ original permission for development that someone was trying to vary?

@missarchi wrote:

GOD NEVER closes one window but he opens another one. It may be that the Railway Procurement Agency is now about to repeat this trick. A very exciting prospect has been opened up by the proposed placing of the Dart Underground and Metro North shared station below ground at St Stephen’s Green in Dublin, requiring major changes to the landscaping.

Anybody coming from the direction of Grafton Street can hardly fail to notice the strange appearance of the Green. The prospect is one of continuous high greenery, concealing the marvellous public space that has afforded Dubliners such a great amenity for three centuries.

There is anecdotal evidence that the Green has become so sequestered that it is putting off some visitors from going into it at all. This is entirely unacceptable and we now have a remedy for it. We can restore it to its original role and make it once again a truly European space.

This is the most ridiculous opinion piece I’ve seen for a while; to turn Stephens Green into an open common and destroy a planned Victorian Garden park to end up with another St Patricks Park would be a tragedy.

Does this lecturer specialise in ‘Rural Planning’ and have a hobby as a closet bungalow designer?

Some wayfinding signage to St Patricks Park might be a good idea though.

This appears to be the applicant being ordered to pay various parties including the local authority and local residents. One wonders what ABP found against the applicant to order payment of costs.

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

Exactly. The current terminal has only 8 years of spare capacity. In infrastructure planning terms, that is no time at all. Ireland needs to have a longer-term view than just 8 years. Thankfully, with Terminal 2, we won’t have any capacity concerns for the next two decades. Air India is interested in Dublin as a European hub as our Terminal 2 and US Immigration Clearance Facility makes us very attractive as a venue for EU-US flights. Dublin can now become a key hub in aviation like Singapore and Dubai.

Singapore and Dubai have a key advantage; a very ambitous flag carrier that is supported by sovereign wealth funds with very deep pockets; except Dubai is the national equivelent of Metro North and had to be bailed out. Good luck to DAA on getting Air India to dock 2 or 3 daily flights but how many Indians will want to visit Dublin City Centre?

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

What difference does it make? Swords is just one part of the line and won’t be the making and breaking of Metro North. I remind you that this underground line will still be there in 100 years so there definitely will be the population there to use the Metro. The London Underground was built when London had less than a quarter of its current population and nobody would say that was a mistake. The Tube is still using lines built then and in 2110, Metro North will still be serving Swords. That makes your depictions of Swords as little more than a village irrelevant.

You can’t compare London’s underground development to Dublin; one is a City with 8m inside its ring motorway which has a core of 6 storey average building heights that covers probably 20 square miles. Swords has been held up along with the Airport and Ballymun as a key provider of passengers to make the service viable; the population statistics supplied are clearly flawed.

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

The ESRI’s Recovery Scenarios paper forecasts Ireland returning to peak levels by 2018 in the low growth scenario and 2015 in the high growth. Given that the ESRI has often under-estimated the strength of Ireland’s economy, it’s likely we’ll reach peak levels by 2015/16.

I wouldn’t be too bothered with S&’s notes. They are, after all, the people who gave sub-prime loans AAA ratings.

S & P are the experts in credit risk management; it is fair to say that sub-prime had more to do with a deterioration in lending standards and misinformation provided by banks to rating agencies as they could only rate what they were given. If you want to use the ESRI whose predictions are based on their advice being followed you may wish to see their views on Infrastructure spending.

Bank costs to swell deficit – ESRI
Wednesday, 14 July 2010 15:33
The Economic and Social Research Institute says the cost of providing extra capital to Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide will have to be included in the national accounts, and will push the government deficit from 11.5% to 19.75% of economic output – by far the highest in the developed world.

The report indicates that 120,000 people will have left Ireland in the two years to next April.

Read more detail on the report here

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund has praised the Government’s moves to support the banks and tackle the budget deficit, saying they had helped stabilise the economy. Read more on the IMF view here

Spend on training, urges ESRI

The ESRI also says money to tackle long-term unemployment is better spent on training schemes than on building infrastructure.

In its latest quarterly survey of the Irish economy, the ESRI sees little difference to its previous outlook, with the economy broadly flat this year and modest growth next year.

But what has changed is the announcement in March of E12.9 billion of extra capital for Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide. This injection is by way of promissory note – a type of IOU under which cash can be drawn down over a ten-year period as the institutions require.

The ESRI believes the EU statistics agency Eurostat and other international bodies will want that liability written into the national accounts in full this year. That would have the effect of increasing the government deficit from the department of finance target of 11.5% to almost 20%.

The ESRI also cautions against using infrastructure spending as a job creation mechanism, saying its research suggests that money is better spent on improving workers’ skills through training programmes for long-term sustainable results.

Bank figures factored in, says Cowen

Speaking in the US, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said financial markets had already factored in the fact that injections of capital to nationalised Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide could raise the deficit. But he said that would be a one-off and its exact accounting remained unclear.

‘The underlying deficit situation is as planned,’ Mr Cowen told RTE’s Morning Ireland. He said that, in the US, people felt that Ireland had ‘first mover advantage’ and had made the right decisions to get through the difficult economic period.

The main opposition parties said the ESRI report indicated the need to make jobs a priority. The Fine Gael spokesman on finance, Michael Noonan said it should set alarm bells ringing that the Government’s economic strategy of massive bank bail-outs and fiscal austerity was not enough to get Ireland working again.

The Labour Party spokeswoman Joan Burton said the the Government had been quick to trumpet any sign of economic recovery, but the truth was that there would be no recovery for families until unemployment started to fall.

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

15 minutes by bus to the airport from Drumcondra? 15 minutes walk into Town from Drumcondra? Are you mad? It takes about twice that at least. In any case, as the subject of an other thread – “Visionary Public Transport System for Dublin” points out, we walk too much in this city. Dubliners are forever walking from place to place where in other cities they would hop on the Metro to get there.

Drumcoundra station is than one mile from O’Connell Street via Lower Dorset St and Parnell Sq. The aircoach takes 15 mins from Quinns pub to the airport.

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

And, as I point out above, excludes the administrative and teaching staff who need to get there too. Your point about students getting up earlier is glib. Students shouldn’t have to pay the price for poor transport planning in Dublin. UCD may have a QBC, but DCU doesn’t. You need to use at least 2 buses to get there which exposes you to the risk of missing and delayed buses. Metro North will solve these problems by providing a reliable transport link to DCU. I also remind you that the Helix is there, which is used extensively for plays, shows and events like You’re a Star auditions. These create thousands of commuters and Metro North can serve them.

The point depot is a star attraction; can you not get some grasp of scale. If students are going to avoid graduate taxation as is common in the UK they wouold do well to get on their bikes and figure out that they have got to prove themselves and are not owed anything from the system they have yet to contribute to.

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

Not many, considering I’m from Dublin and we don’t have a tube. Yet.

The escalator/stairs point is a red herring. Metro stations will have wheelchair access via lifts. Infirm people can use them to get to street level. I also remind you that their able-bodied visitors can use the Metro to see them and their doctors can use the Metro to get to work.

Lifts to service underground concourses are rare internationally because of the costs of installing and maintaining them; I fully support disabled access in places where passenger demand exists to justify a system that is fit for purpose.

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

You can’t play this card when you advocate a Luas line instead of Metro North. Luas came in years late and three times its original budget.

Luas was a first project for the RPA; subsequent projects were within their comfort zone; do you want the RPA on a learning curve again?

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

I never said that. What I said is that if we want to have any hope of attracting high-quality investment we need a high-quality infrastructure and Metro North is part of this. Ireland decided to spend next to nothing on capital investment during the 80s and we paid the prices with congestion and tail-backs during the 90s. Even with the austerity programme, €39 billion will be spent on capital projects over the next 6 years. We can get things like the Interconnector and Metro North out of this change. If we don’t implement a strong and substantial capital programme over the next 10 years, we won’t be at the investment races. The two go together.

You can’t compare the interconnector to the Metro proposal; one delivers capacity on 5 existing lines the other intersects with other elements of the network; extending Luas to the Maynooth line gives the same interconnectivity at a fraction of the cost.

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

It’ll be there for a century, it’ll generate thousands of jobs during construction and make it easier to get around the northside. Given that it links with the Luas Green line, Dart Interconnector, Dublin Bus stops and the DART at Drumcondra it will go a long way towards building a seamless public transport system in Dublin.

Anything that doesn’t work on a 20 year timeframe doesn’t work; if someone offered a 100 year loan with an interest holiday for 80 years you would have an argument. As someone living in a city with extensive public transport I can see where it works and where it doesn’t. Metro North does not have the population density to justify the cost.

ESRI
Deptment of Finance
Irish Times

All of these bodies are calling for Infrastructure spending to be pulled in or have found Metro North not to be viable. What part of route does not have the density to make it a viable project do you not get?

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

So the current building has eight year’s spare capacity in it. What about the next 8 and the 8 after that? If we do nothing until 2018 when the current terminal reaches its fill we’ll have 6 years of Terminal 1 being ridiculously over-crowded as we wait for Terminal 2 to be built. Terminal 2 future-proofs Dublin Airport by giving it plenty of capacity for the next 20 years. It’s already attracted the attention of Air India as a possible EU-US hub since it has a dedicated US immigration clearing service. If airlines like Air India start using Terminal 2 then it will pay its way and be recognised as a smart investment. Besides, it’s good to have an airport with loads of spare capacity. Spare capacity means it’s easy to find a place beside the luggage belt, get a parking space, find a seat while you wait to board etc.. Tourists, especially the business kind, value that sort of experience and it will make them like an airport all the more and use it more often..

The airport had enough capacity to take it to 2018; they have added enough to take it at least 2033 in the midst of an economic collapse; what has Air India to do with such poor timing?

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

According to a report conducted by Indecon referred to in this article, Swords’ population was 59,000 in 2006.Link. Given that Metro will still be running 100 years’ hence, there is plenty of time for that figure to rise to 128,100, even if it does miss the 2025 deadline. .

The census put it at c22,000 including remote wards such as Rolestown etc that are 2-3 miles from the town centre; what is the urban population of Swords either today or in 2006?

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

For now, but the economy will recover over this decade and passenger numbers will rise with that recovery. Infrastructure isn’t about present demands, its about the future, and meeting it. By 2050 we could very well have a third terminal built and a Metro line of double the capacity to meet all the extra demand..

Show one economic projection that displays demand for2020 at even 2007 levels. This project was kicked out by the Dept of Finance when growth was running at 6-10% a year. I refer to S &P’s opinion above.

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

East to west maybe, but not north to south. If you want to take a train to the airport or to O’Connell St. from Drumcondra, you still would have to wait. Moreover, the existence of two rail lines at Drumcondra will increase demand on both lines as people use Metro to get to Drumcondra and then take the DART to their final destination and vice versa. The Metro improves the efficiency and attractiveness of the DART at Drumcondra. It’s called network externalities. .

With a change at Pearse passengers are in Heuston ; it is 15 minutes by bus to the airport and O’Connell St is less than 15 minutes walk. €2bn – €5bn is just too much money for what the project delivers; an underground Luas line.

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

DCU has about 10,000 students which, when added to the amount of teaching and administrative staff working there, amounts to a town’s worth of commuters. One of the key reasons I didn’t consider DCU in my CAO was the poor transport access – it would take at least 2 buses to get there. Given that buses are often snarled up in Dublin’s heavy traffic, the potential to be late for lectures is huge. With a Metro stop right beside it, these problems are solved. DCU will be easily accessible from the city centre and this will boost the numbers choosing to study there.

Furthermore, DCU isn’t just a university, the Helix is there too. That centre plays host to a huge number of plays, shows and conferences. Having the Metro stop nearby would make this place more competitive for business and result in more people using Metro..

This includes part time students; students need to get up earlier or cycle. UCD does fine with a QBC. You need to picture scale..

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

Why? On-street Luas would be caught up in traffic and there’ll be lifts at the Mater Metro stop which would have you street-level in no time..

Because most sick people take taxi’s or buses; how many sick people do you see on tubes or subway’s? The climbing down steps and escalators is not suited to the infirm.

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

Not if you’re using the DARTu from the east or west. From these directions it would be much more convenient to make the switch at Stephen’s Green and get off at O’Connell Bridge. .

You either change at Pearse or walk for 5 minutes from Tara St or god forbid even use the Luas from Connolly to access O’Connell Street

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

According to the Dublin Port Tunnel website, 5,000 people were employed during construction. Link.

I am unsure as to the mix between domestic and international employment. I would imagine a large chunk of that would be domestic as most of the jobs would be in blasting, clearing and excavating. The manual labour content would be much higher than non-manual. You would need only a small design team in an office in Switzerland while you’d need hundreds on the ground in Clontarf.

I would also imagine that since we have built the Jack Lynch Tunnel, Port Tunnel and Limerick Tunnel; the technical ability amongst Irish contractors for projects such as these is rising. In that case I would estimate that DARTu and Metro North will see an even greater Irish involvement in the development of the project..

The Irish firm on this went bust in the early stages of the project (Irishenco) and was bought out by Mowlem; the project over-ran from 43 months to 5.5 years and the tender price of €457m came back at €752m with a further claim of c€300m made by the contractors. Hardly encouraging..

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

I don’t see why the two are mutually-exclusive. IDA-backed companies like having a good infrastructure surrounding their investments. If the management of an IDA-backed company can zip around Town on the Metro/DARTu, they’re much more likely to stay rather than re-locate somewhere else. Our infrastructure deficit is one of the key drags on our competitiveness according to the lists published by IMD and the WEF. Having things like Metro North will go some way towards alleviating this and make it easier for the IDA to get the high-quality jobs you mention.

Are you really saying with deficits north of 10% that money is not tight?

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

I won’t address that because I am not the Department of Finance (unfortunately) and I can’t speak for them. .

It seems no one connected with the project will address this fact; it is simply unacceptable that with 400,000 plus people out of work that scarce resources continue to be poured into a project that has never passed an objective cost benefit analysis.

The difference between terminal 2 and MN is single and critical, it is built i.e. there is no ability to stop the project; operationally it would be better if it were not built and the operational inefficiencies it presents are a very notable comparison in terms of massive over capacity relative to demand resulting in either the DAA losing significant sums going forward or air-passengers paying uncompetitive landing charges.

As Keynes said in the long term we are all dead; it is time to start concentrating on the hear and now all 400,000 plus of them.

Iarnrod Eireann blames councils for hastening closure of railwayBy Paul Melia

Saturday August 07 2010

A FRESH row broke out yesterday over the closure of a railway line after a report said the decision by Iarnrod Eireann had “serious shortcomings”.

The South East Regional Authority (SERA) investigation found fundamental flaws in rail bosses’ proposals to scrap the underperforming Rosslare-to-Waterford line.

It claims the service could get back on track through extra stops and a more frequent timetable.

But Iarnrod Eireann has in turn blamed local authorities for hastening the closure of the railway line because of poor planning decisions.

A spokesman claimed that if county councils had insisted that new housing developments be built close to the line, it could have attracted more customers which would have allowed it to remain open.

The new report yesterday said the line could be kept open and passenger numbers increased if more services were introduced, and local authorities and community groups worked to promote the service.

Last month Iarnrod Eireann announced that services would be suspended because of poor passenger numbers.

There is only one train from Rosslare to Waterford in the morning and one back in the evening. Just 25 people use the service each day, and the state rail operator said it could not afford to keep it open.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) will decide next month if the line can be closed. Iarnrod Eireann is paid an annual fee by the Government to provide a service, and the NTA must approve its closure.

“We made our submission to the NTA and we feel any objective assessment demonstrates that the line is unsustainable,” said Iarnrod Eireann spokesman Barry Kenny.

Losses

“We have made assessments in relation to operating additional services, which showed they would generate greater losses. The local authorities did nothing in recent years to make this line sustainable. You could have had focused development around the line to improve its sustainability, but that didn’t happen.”

The need for the line was stressed in the report commissioned by SERA, which is made up of Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford City, Waterford County, and Wexford councils.

It said a “viable” rail service on the Rosslare-Waterford-Limerick line, and specifically on the Rosslare-Waterford section, would contribute to balanced regional development. It said the region’s population was 460,000, and would increase to almost 600,000 by 2022.

“A decision to close passenger services on a rail line linking population centres would seriously be in conflict with the thrust of national and regional policy,” it found. “The key question is therefore whether the line is capable of generating enough passenger traffic to make a material contribution to these policy objectives.”

It said that Iarnrod Eireann’s justification for closing the line had “serious shortcomings” and it would be “unsafe” for the line to close based on the company’s views. “Low frequency services, especially with poor interconnections with other services, cannot be expected to attract large numbers of travellers.”

It said freight traffic could be increased, and the line developed as a community rail partnership promoted by councils, community and rail user groups and local business.

– Paul Melia

Irish Independent

I have to agree with IE on this; all of the regional authorities sat back whilst tens of thousands of one off houses were built in each of their functional areas. Had the bodies banned one off houses and focussed growth along existing transport corridors and raised development levies to fund removal of level crossings and rolling stock then they could have a go at IE. Why should the tax payer run uneconomical services if the regional and local authorities won’t incur an opportunity cost to assist same?

Cllr Crowe is very disappointed that the Garraun Road is to be sealed off on a permanent basis.

“Although there is still access for pedestrian and cyclists, that road has been there from time immemorial”.

According to him, it is imperative that there is access to UL from the Clare side of the river Shannon

I can see a rich farmer or NAMA offering parking facilities and a rent a bike scheme…..