Sir, - I wish to welcome Dr Garret FitzGerald's acceptance that Dublin's new light rail system must run underground in the city centre. It is particularly welcome to see an Irish Times columnist promoting this view. Hitherto, your newspaper has enthusiastically supported Luas, adding its considerable voice to the massive publicly funded, PR campaign put behind this project.
The Progressive Democrats have consistently supported the provision of a modern, efficient and reliable rail rapid transit system for Dublin. We believe, however, it is vital that proper consideration is given to all the alternatives before proceeding with this massive project.
Perhaps the former Taoiseach has been out of the country for the last three months. Otherwise, he would be aware that virtually all of the criticisms he has raised against the current Luas proposal were articulated by the Progressive Democrats during the course of the recent Dail and Seanad debates on this issue. I will be glad to send him copies of all the relevant speeches.
We were the first party to commit ourselves to supporting the underground option for the city centre sections of the proposed system. We supported an extension to the airport via, Ballymun, with private capital being brought in to cover part of the construction costs. We also argued that the new system should be linked with the existing DART service to create a single, integrated, rail rapid transit network for the whole city, as recommended by Mr Cormac Rabbit and his group in their unified proposal for the development of rapid transit in Dublin.
If the present proposal goes ahead, Dublin will be one of the few cities anywhere in the developed world with two separate rapid transit systems and no interconnection between them. Perhaps Dr FitzGerald might now use his considerable powers of persuasion, and his undoubted expertise in transport economics, to bring his former colleagues in Fine Gael around to his view. Most Fine Gael deputies in Dublin believe that the present proposals are severely flawed and will exacerbate the city's traffic problems; however, for party reasons all are rowing in behind Minister Lowry's misguided plans. - Yours, etc.,
TD, PD Spokesperson on Transport,
Dail Eireann,
Dublin 2.