Key executives to be 'headhunted'

The Trinity College academic charged with setting up the new Dublin Transport Authority (DTA) has said she will "head-hunt key transport executives who deliver projects on time and on budget".

Prof Margaret O'Mahony said she had been told that although time was of the essence, "we have got to get this right". Other members of the group charged with setting up the DTA are John Lumsden and Pat Mangan, assistant secretaries general at the Department of Transport, and Colin Hunt, special adviser to Minister for Transport Martin Cullen.

Yesterday on RTÉ's This Week Prof O'Mahony said she wanted "people who will bring innovation, who have clear ideas about how to deliver in tight budgetary frameworks". She said her interim group could deliver "something of the structure of the DTA" within months. Once established she will become its non-executive chairwoman.

She said she believed the transport plan would be delivered to people in such a way that it would not become bogged down in the courts, nor would it shut down the centre of the city during construction.

International research on environmental impact planning, and careful day-to-day management of construction could provide significant improvements.

There were two key issues that had never coincided before: "We have the plan and the finance is there . . . there is a sheer determination to get things done.

"In terms of the previous plans, I don't see anything wrong with changing a plan, or improving a plan, or adding to a plan or adding further infrastructure if it is needed, and that is how Transport 21 has come about.

"It is basically about building on previous plans, changing them where necessary and because we have got a different economic climate now . . . there is a need for the higher quality and higher capacity public transport modes such as the metro."

However, Labour spokeswoman on Transport Róisín Shortall criticised Mr Cullen, saying his policy was being made "on the hoof". While she wished Prof O'Mahony well in her new appointment, the number of instances in which Mr Cullen was setting up committees and altering unfinished proposals was alarming.

Ms Shortall referred to driver testing and the Standards Authority Bill, which she said was now stalled because the Minister wanted to amend it and change it into a Roads Safety Authority Bill. She also said the weekend's announcement was about a committee to set up an authority, which in itself would need further legislation to enact it. There was "an alarming lack of clarity as to what exact role the DTA will play.

"I would have thought that if the proposed DTA is to play the key role in driving the Transport 21 proposals in the Dublin area, then it should have been already established and given a clearly defined role".

Instead, Mr Cullen "seems to have changed his mind several times in recent weeks as to its exact role and the Minister and the Taoiseach have offered different accounts as to its purpose".