Labour says feasibility study is an attempt to scuttle Luas

The Labour Party has accused the Government of trying to "scuttle" the Dublin light rail transport system by using a feasibility study deliberately to delay work on the project. The party's transport spokesman, Mr Emmet Stagg, claims that a written reply to a Dail question by the Minister for Public Enterprise has conceded that EU funding might no longer be available for LRT if sufficient progress has not been made by next spring.

However, a spokesman for the Minister said she and the Government remained fully committed to the plan, and the latest study was designed only to ensure that the argument between the underground and overground options was settled "once and for all".

Mr Stagg referred to a statement last month by the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Ms Monika Wulf-Mathies, who said that if progress made by spring next year was not sufficient to suggest the project could be completed on schedule, "all or part of the funds will be decommitted and reallocated to other projects".

"Knowing the tight time-scale for drawing down EU funding for the project, the Minister has ordered another inquiry on the feasibility of putting the system underground . . . The only conclusion that can be drawn from this illogical decision is that she has decided to kill off the Luas project, either underground or on street, by an interminable series of unnecessary and repetitive studies," Mr Stagg added.

In the Dail reply, Ms O'Rourke said tenders for the underground study were now being urgently evaluated. Consultants would be appointed shortly and the study was expected to take six months to complete.

The reply continues: "A decision to proceed with an underground section in the city centre would necessitate a substantial redesign of CIE's current proposals and would defer completion of the project beyond 2001.

"However, it is important to point out that even in these circumstances EU funding allocated to the light rail project under the Operational Programme for Transport would not be lost to Ireland since the unused funds could be reallocated to other eligible projects."

Mr Stagg, who claimed Fianna Fail had reluctantly agreed to the light rail system in the 1992 negotiations for government with Labour, said Ms O'Rourke's reply had "demonstrated her bias against an effective public transport system for Dublin city in favour of the powerful private car lobby". Where the £114 million in EU funding was reallocated would be "most instructive as to her real agenda", he added.

But the Minister's spokesman said the underground study had followed a vigorous public debate about the merits and demerits of this option: "This is a very important infrastructural development which will be there for decades to come, and the Government is anxious to get it right. And the delay is not much greater than with similar projects elsewhere. The record shows there were protracted leadins to LRT in other European cities."

The spokesman accepted Ms Mathies's right to comment, and conceded that a decision in favour of the underground option could cause problems with the schedule for approved funds.

But he said the Minister had twice this week restated her commitment to Luas. "LRT is definitely going ahead," he added.