Sir - The new Government has taken an irrevocable step towards shelving the LUAS
project. It has finally admitted that the timescale for the project is unworkable, due to its insistence on a review of the city centre underground option. The Government's suggestion that the EU grant for LUAS could be diverted to another project, only to be re-diverted at some later date, is pathetic. The road lobby has triumphed again, and Dublin will continue to lack a balanced transport system. One of the chief advocates of the ill-fated underground review is Senator David Norris. He has been a tireless protector of Dublin's Georgian heritage over the years, but ironically has failed to see the environmental benefits of trams running at street level. Senator Norris has admitted to me that he actively encouraged Dr Garret FitzGerald to write the Irish Times articles that proposed an underground review for LUAS. However, you will not find submissions or observations from Dr Garret FitzGerald or Senator Norris in any of the Dublin Transportation Initiative reports that began around 1988
and gave everybody an opportunity to contribute to the planning of Dublin's transportation policies. It is with regret that I shall not be voting for
David Norris in the forthcoming Senate elections, since I have given my number one vote to him in past elections. - Yours, etc., Peter J. D. Scott
Booterstown, Co Dublin.