Minister's answer reopens rail issue

THE Cabinet has been advised that the Dublin Port access road, and the Luas light rail line to Ballymun cannot be built at the same time without traffic chaos.

The Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, told MEPs yesterday surveyors had advised the Government that the overlap between the projects would mean huge congestion on the route between the city centre and the airport.Malone.

Mr Quinn's revelation reopens the controversy over which two of the three Luas routes Ballymun, Tallaght, and Dundrum should receive priority. The EU Commission, which has sought a cost benefit analysis of the social impact of, "the three routes, has made it clear that it does not want the decision pre-empted. Officials expressed concern recently that the impression was being given that the decision to delay Ballymun had been taken.

In the Dail the Minister for Transport, Mr Lowry, insisted he had always qualified his statements with a reference to Commission approval.

Mr Quinn later denied suggestions that he was pre-empting the Commission report. Any decision would have to be subject to agreement with the Commission, he said.

"No one is disputing the need to go to Ballymun," Mr Quinn said. "The question is how do you manage the various projects at different times? There is for a section of the route a clear geographical constriction.

"There will be no decision without the Commission because we are talking about the use of European structural funds," he said.

Surveying for the port access road, also a major EU priority under the Community Support Framework, has already begun and the completion of the road is of vital importance to the whole of Dublin, the Minister said.