Almost three quarters of a billion euro will have been spent on the MetroLink rail project by the end of the year, before construction of the 19km line begins, an Oireachtas committee has been told.
The new figures include the purchase of the O’Connell Street redevelopment site, previously planned by UK property group Hammerson as part of a large-scale shopping centre development.
Hammerson said on Wednesday it had sold assets, valued at £69 million (€80.7 million), including multiple holdings in central Dublin which had been bought by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the State transport developer. TII has confirmed it has bought more than 2.5 acres from Hammerson, encompassing almost all of the western side of Upper O’Connell Street, including the former Carlton cinema site.
TII would not reveal the total cost of the purchase, but said it had acquired the site to “support MetroLink construction works and future development planning”.
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Michael Flynn, interim programme director for MetroLink, told the Oireachtas Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery on Wednesday more than €525 million had been spent on MetroLink to date and another €200.5 million in expenditure was forecast by the end of the year. A “further ramp-up” in spending was expected in 2027 “as MetroLink will be on site next year” with the main construction following from 2028, he said.
Flynn has temporarily replaced Sean Sweeney, who left the €550,000-a-year role at the end of June. TII said it secured approval this week to advertise for Sweeney’s permanent replacement.
Flynn told the committee he was unable to confirm details of the deal with Hammerson as this could “compromise negotiations” still to come with other landowners along the line.
Planning permission for MetroLink, which will run from Swords in north Dublin to Charlemont, close to Ranelagh in south Dublin, and will serve Dublin Airport, already included an underground station in O’Connell Street underneath the former Carlton cinema. The Hammerson shopping centre, office and residential scheme was to have been developed above.
However, while Hammerson secured planning permission for its development from Dublin City Council in 2022, the decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála. The board upheld the council’s decision, but this was further appealed to the High Court by the Moore Street Preservation Trust, a group involving a number relatives of those involved in the 1916 Rising, and Sinn Féin.
These judicial review proceedings have been continuing for almost two years.
TII chief executive Lorcan O’Connor on Wednesday said the State’s acquisition of the site would “allow us to redevelop this important area for the benefit of the Irish people, while also bringing benefits that will make the construction of MetroLink easier”.
He thanked Hammerson for working “constructively with the State to make this agreement possible” and said TII would be working with the new Dublin City Taskforce, which has a mandate to revitalise the north inner city, and the Land Development Agency (LDA) to develop the site.
Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien said the site’s acquisition “will be the first chance for many to understand how MetroLink will allow us to improve the public realm and really reimagine what our city looks like”.
O’Brien is due to seek approval from Cabinet of updated MetroLink costs by the end of this month to allow TII to go to tender for the construction of the 19km line.
The last cost estimates for the line, issued by TII when it last submitted its business case for the project to the government in 2022, ranged from €7.16 billion to €12.25 billion. It is expected the new estimate will be in the region of €16 billion to €18 billion.
Flynn told the committee he expected a Government decision on MetroLink in the coming weeks. “It is going to be up there with Ardnacrusha in terms of its impact on the country,” he said.
