The Minister for Transport has denied a report in today's Irish Timesthat the proposed metro line to Dublin Airport will not be finished until five years after its 2007 deadline.
The report, citing a feasibility study carried out by management consultants, says the line from Shanganagh in south Co Dublin will cost billions of euros more than anticipated.
It estimates that the line would cost as much as €20 billion and could not be delivered for at least 10 years.
Speaking this afternoon in Dundrum, Dublin at the ceremony marking the completion of the LUAS bridge, Mr Seamus Brennan insisted the section of the metro from the city centre to the airport would be finished on time.
"The Government decided that the section from the airport to the city centre would be extracted from the main metro plan, taken out separately, funded separately and it will be available to the public by the end of the term of Government, which is 2007."
The remainder of the metro system will probably take ten years to complete, he said, adding that this was in accordance with the original plans.
He admitted it was "unrealistic" to expect the whole line to be completed by 2007.