Government Looking to Renege on the Navan to Dublin Rail line By Publishing Inflated Costs – Tóibín
Chair of the Meath on Track Campaign and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has stated:
“It did not take the government long to row back from preelection promises to build the Navan to Dublin Rail line. The publication of the a €3billion price tag for the Navan to Dublin Rail line only 5 days after the election, will in no doubt be used by the government as opportunity to seek to row back from the commitment to build the line, just 6 days ago. I would not be surprised that these new inflated estimated figures may actually be kite flying by the government in an effort to long finger the project for another 20 years”.
“One thing is for certain, every time the government postpone this project it gets more expensive. 80,000 people in Meath are commuting every day by car. The government are hiking up the cost of fuel with extra taxes. They say the reason for this is to move people to alternative public transport projects, yet the government are refusing to build those alternative public transport projects”.
“I can tell the government that any further postponement of the rail line will not be tolerated by the people of Meath. The Meath on Track Campaign will be organising a public protest in Meath in the new year. We will mobilise thousands of people to take the streets if this project is long fingered. The current opening date of 2036 is already too far away. We need this project opened in the next 6 years. We also need to look at the whole manner in which capital projects are built. They are too expensive and too slow. The original Navan to Dublin Rail Line was built in the 1860s in 3 years with picks and shovels”.
