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Irish Post
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Post
Hundreds of billions set for Irish infastructure and development plan
THE Irish Government is set to approve a revised National Development Plan (NDP), unlocking €200 billion in infrastructure investment over the next decade. The new strategy, which outlines €100 billion in spending from 2026 to 2030 and a further €100 billion from 2031 to 2035, is being positioned as a cornerstone of Ireland's long-term economic prosperity. At the heart of the plan is a drive to modernise Ireland's essential infrastructure, particularly in housing, transport, energy and water services. Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers described the plan as a 'step change' in capital investment, stating that the goal is to tackle infrastructural shortfalls while positioning Ireland competitively on the global stage. The revised NDP includes a €30 billion boost in spending over the next five years, a rise from the €20 billion previously earmarked for this period. This increase has been made possible, in part, by Ireland's €14 billion windfall from the Apple tax case and revenue from recent sales of state-held shares in AIB and other bailed-out banks. Central to the government's strategy is a focus on basic utilities, such as water and sewerage systems, which are currently blocking housing development in Dublin. Without new treatment capacity, councils may soon be unable to approve planning applications. Uisce Éireann has called for an additional €2 billion on top of existing funding to tackle growing demand and modernise outdated infrastructure, including the already overstretched Ringsend plant. The NDP also earmarks funds for electricity infrastructure, responding to surging demand driven by population growth and the rapid expansion of energy-hungry data centres, which now consume over 20 percent of Ireland's electricity supply. The revised plan reflects a shift in government priorities on transport spending. The previous coalition's 2:1 ratio favouring public transport over roads has now been dropped. Chambers confirmed that while public transport and active travel will receive a major uplift, road projects in regions like the west and southwest will also move forward, many of which have been delayed for years. Flexibility will be given to Transport Minister Darragh O'Brien to scale funding up or down depending on local needs. Despite mounting pressure, the NDP does not list individual projects yet, including controversial initiatives such as the Dublin Metro, which remains in limbo with an estimated cost of up to €23 billion and a new potential completion date of 2035. Defence will also receive increased funding, a notable change for a country with a long-standing policy of neutrality. With the war in Ukraine ongoing and rising tensions in global trade, concerns have mounted over the vulnerability of undersea cables and pipelines in Irish waters. While Ireland has resisted calls to join NATO, the government has acknowledged the need to modernise the Army, Naval Service, and Air Corps, suggesting that defence spending will no longer be left on the periphery of national planning. Officials have been keen to underscore that the economic backdrop for this plan is unlike anything seen in recent years. Speaking ahead of the Summer Economic Statement, Tánaiste Simon Harris stated the importance of being prudent and realistic in projecting figures, warning that the global environment requires cautious but decisive action. Junior Minister Seán Canney reinforced the need to plan even as global risks loom, saying that Ireland cannot afford to wait for clarity on issues like tariffs before preparing for the future. Despite the scale of ambition, the full list of projects funded by the plan won't be released for several months. Climate advocates, regional representatives, and opposition parties will be watching closely to see whether the government can strike a balance between long-term sustainability and immediate infrastructural demands. As billions are committed to reshaping the country's future, the challenge now is not just allocating funds but ensuring that delivery matches expectation.
Irish Examiner
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Housing is ‘central focus' of €30bn plan to boost investment and protect economy
The Government will this week roll out a €30bn plan to boost investment and protect the Irish economy in the face of US tariffs and recession fears. An additional €10bn of this is to be set aside for 'specific strategic investment' across water infrastructure, the Dublin Metro project, and the electricity grid. Public expenditure and reform minister Jack Chambers said the specific details of the 'ring-fenced' additional funding will be revealed on Tuesday. Coalition leaders met on Saturday to finalise details around updates to the National Development Plan which will ramp up investment in key infrastructure in a move to make Ireland a more attractive place to invest. Mr Chambers told Cabinet colleagues in recent weeks that investment in infrastructure is the most efficient way of safeguarding the economy, especially if the EU and the US end up in a trade war with tariffs above 10%. Senior Coalition sources accept that a 10% tariff is 'baked in' but warn that anything above that could have serious impacts on the Irish economy. Apple tax and AIB shares windfalls They said that Mr Chambers has argued for windfalls from the Apple tax case and sale of AIB shares to be pumped into addressing infrastructural deficits in the National Development Plan (NDP). Mr Chambers said this weekend that the Government will be seeking to 'provide the headroom' needed by Irish Water when it comes to providing additional housing supply. 'We've heard crystal clear the issues around the funding deficit which exists for Uisce Éireann, and the absolute need if we want to ramp up housing supply to address the concerns nationwide around water and wastewater infrastructure,' he told RTÉ's News at One. The 'whole central focus' of this review in the NDP is housing supply and the infrastructure which supports it, he added. There will also be a 'major uplift in our commitment to public transport, to roads projects and active travel', according to Mr Chambers. An additional €10bn of the extra €30bn investment is to be set aside for 'specific strategic investment' including Dublin Metro. However, Government also needs to 'ensure that in regions across our country, whether it's in the West or the South-West or elsewhere, that roads projects, which have been on the table for many years, are progressed', he added. 'That's fundamental to providing balanced regional development, addressing issues around road safety and ensuring we've got connectivity to our regions in the West of Ireland and elsewhere.' Extra money will be allocated in the NDP to defence spending, Mr Chambers confirmed. He rejected the idea that spending on other areas would be limited as a result. 'We can't ignore serious infrastructure deficits in water and energy and transport and housing, and that's why they're being prioritised around the overall allocation,' he said. The Government will also this week outline its summer economic statement, which will give a broad outline of the amount of money available both in this year's budget and over the next number of years in capital spending. Meanwhile, part of the Government's response to tariffs will include a new fund to be announced by enterprise minister Peter Burke, aiming to help companies most impacted by tariffs to cope with increases in costs due to the Trump administration's tariffs.
Irish Times
21-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
‘We've dropped the ball': Ireland's housing targets will be missed because the water, electricity and roads required can't be delivered
When Bertie Ahern was taoiseach, he invited the chief of the Madrid metro to Merrion Street to discuss underground rail for Dublin . The late Prof Manuel Melis Maynar had built the Spanish system in record time at minimal cost. At a meeting in Government Buildings , he said the limestone beneath Dublin was ideal for tunnelling. Ahern replied: 'When can you start?' That was in 2003. Two decades later, the perennial wait for a Dublin metro goes on. The saga is but one tale of Irish infrastructure woe among many. But if the metro is something of a national joke, other stalled projects do not invite laughter. The Republic's water and electricity networks are increasingly overstretched, prompting sharp questions about the response to the worsening housing crisis. The need to accelerate housing output has never been greater but utilities are stuck in the slow lane. These are the pipes and wires that keep water and electricity flowing. As the housing shortage drives young adults to despair or their childhood bedrooms, warning lights are flashing about the State's ability to settle the most pressing problem facing Irish society. The population is forecast to reach six million by about 2040, so demand for infrastructure will only grow. But Uisce Éireann , the water authority, has warned it may have to stop connecting new Dublin homes within three years if a long-delayed wastewater plant does not clear planning soon. READ MORE At the same time, thousands of new homes have been delayed because they can't access power. State electricity company ESB Networks accepts the need to reinforce the network in certain places because of soaring demand. But some critical equipment can take as long as three years to procure. 'It's in the red zone,' says one big housing developer who has dealings with the ESB. As the Government struggles to boost construction, all of this means privileged State bodies responsible for critical services can't guarantee timely delivery. So what are the reasons for the crunch? What can be done about it? And what about the ever-rising cost of building such infrastructure? 'There has been a mood change in that there's a recognition now that because of infrastructure we can't deliver housing,' says a senior industrial figure who grapples daily with the utilities deficit. 'We have dropped the ball. We had spare capacity but now we're running on fumes.' The roots of the problem lie in the huge expansion of the State's population and economy, which was not matched by a corresponding increase in critical infrastructure. The population is estimated to have reached 5.38 million in 2024, compared with 3.79 million in 2000, a 1.59 million increase in a quarter-century. In the same period the number of people working in the State has risen to 2.79 million from 1.65 million, an increase of 1.14 million. Seán Laffey, Uisce Éireann: 'We're not saying people shouldn't have the right to object, but it should be treated in a way that is accelerated.' Photograph: Damien Eagers/The Irish Times 'We're playing catch-up now,' says Seán Laffey, asset management and sustainability director at Uisce Éireann, adding that it takes between seven and 10 years to plan and build water and wastewater infrastructure. 'We have an infrastructure which was perfectly capable of handling maybe 4-4.5 million people. Now we're up to 5.7 million – nearly six million people – and we're behind. Now, we did have a surplus; we're very lucky in that respect. But we're actually maxing that out now.' Making matters worse was disruption from the 2008 economic crash, which brought construction to a halt for several years and cut off funding for initiatives such as the Dublin metro. Then there was the coronavirus pandemic, which closed large parts of the economy and concentrated political action on healthcare, almost to the exclusion of everything else. The upshot is that the State is playing catch-up on infrastructure. Basic services now lag behind huge housing and industrial demand, but utility projects face long delays because of planning logjams, legal issues and red tape. Inevitably, delays spur costs. But infrastructure experts say the mechanisms for sanctioning big State projects have never been more cumbersome or frustrating. One weary infrastructure warrior laments roadway routes being re-examined even after compulsory purchase orders were already in train to buy land on an approved route. We found that Ireland's infrastructure is about 25 per cent lower than what you find in other high-income European countries — Niall Conroy, Irish Fiscal Advisory Council Another speaks of a mind-numbing culture of 'reviews of reviews' under crash-era measures to control public spending: 'This approval process has people review the business case and assess projects at a level of detail that has already been assessed by experts.' A third individual refers to 'significant heartache', saying measures seem designed more to make it more difficult to bring forward projects than clear the way for building. 'People become beaten down and jaded by it,' he says. 'The density of our bureaucratic process is a major factor.' Outgoing Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) chief executive Peter Walsh, whose office is in charge of the latest metro plan, says project timelines have doubled since the early 2000s. When he was involved in national road projects at the turn of the century, it usually took seven years from conception to completion. 'It is now well in excess of 15 years,' he says. 'I think the challenge for delivering infrastructure generally is very serious.' Such delays are not unique to transport – and there are implications far beyond housing. One concern is the State's heavy dependence on foreign direct investment from multinational companies, many from the United States. Almost 1,000 US companies are in Ireland, the best known of them including tech groups Apple, Microsoft, Google and Meta, and pharmaceutical groups Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. With US trade already under threat from president Donald Trump's tariffs, infrastructure and housing issues make it difficult to make the case for new Irish investment projects. [ Ireland falls further behind on emissions targets making billions in fines more likely Opens in new window ] Another concern is the pressing need to cut carbon emissions to meet climate targets. The electricity shortage has already led to curbs on power-hungry data centres, which dominate demand, and emergency power generation from non-renewable sources. This is not good for environmental goals set down in law. Research by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) , the official budget watchdog, shows the challenge is stark. 'We found that Ireland's infrastructure is about 25 per cent lower than what you find in other high-income European countries,' says Niall Conroy, acting chief economist. The main areas of deficiency were in housing, healthcare, transport and electricity. Water systems were 'about average' by European standards, but Ireland needs more water services because of high demand from pharmaceutical, information technology and semiconductor industries. A little more than 30,000 new homes were built last year, but Conroy says annual output should be closer to 70,000 for a decade to meet demand. 'We estimate that if Ireland was to have a similar level of housing to other European countries given the size of the population, we would have about 250,000 more homes than we currently have,' he says. 'To address that we need to be building at a pretty high rate for a number of years. As the population increases and because of the demographics we have, we need to be building about 44,000 houses per year just to stand still. 'Then, if you want to address that unmet demand, if you wanted to do that over 10 years, we reckon you'd need to be building another 25,000 on top of that every year for about 10 years. That gets you to about 69,000 per year.' This means housing output would have to more than double. But can it be done? 'Most people would point to a difficulty getting connections to the electricity grid and to water or wastewater facilities,' says Conroy. Ifac's concerns mirror those of authorities such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In a recent report on Ireland, the IMF says 'several key challenges remain in the effective delivery of infrastructure – including planning delays, low construction productivity (including the need to utilise modern methods of construction), and labour shortages in the construction sector'. Video: Dan Dennison The Central Bank has similar anxieties. 'The Irish economy is facing well-documented infrastructure challenges in housing, energy, water and transport, which to be addressed will necessitate a rise in construction sector activity,' the bank said this week as it cut housing delivery forecasts for 2025, 2026 and 2027. This prompts unavoidable questions about conditions on the ground, where builders say the utilities crunch is starting to hinder housing delivery in areas of high demand. 'The LDA [Land Development Agency] is bumping into servicing infrastructure issues in relation to some of its sites, which it's working to overcome with the relevant authorities,' says John Coleman, chief of the LDA, the State body charged with building thousands of homes on public land. A titanic effort is required to boost housing output. But water and wastewater networks are under huge strain already. 'The crunch is here,' says Laffey of Uisce Éireann, adding that capacity is fast running out in Dublin. The national water authority can sustainably produce 618 million litres of water per day in the capital and its hinterland. However, demand over the May public holiday weekend hit 658 million litres. 'So we are running down our reserves of drinking water during the week and we're catching up at the weekend,' says Laffey. The solution for Uisce Éireann lies in a project to bring treated Shannon water to Dublin through a 170km pipeline from the Parteen Basin in Co Tipperary. The authority will seek planning permission at the end of 2025, but Laffey is conscious of the risk of legal challenge. 'In Ireland one person anywhere on the island can take a judicial review,' he says. 'Given the vociferous opposition we have to the pipe in certain areas down in Tipperary, we probably would expect it.' [ Project to pipe water from river Shannon to Dublin could cost €10bn Opens in new window ] The body's wastewater plans have already hit a legal wall. Uisce Éireann went to An Bord Pleanála in 2018 seeking permission for a new Greater Dublin Drainage (GDD) scheme to supplement the major Dublin plant at Ringsend that is near capacity. 'We've seen four years' worth capacity used up in Ringsend in the last 18 months,' says Laffey. Permission for the GDD scheme was granted in 2019 but the High Court quashed it in 2020 after a case taken by a daily sea swimmer. The ruling found the decision 'legally flawed' because the planning board failed to seek certain EPA observations. The matter went back to An Bord Pleanála, with a new decision still awaited. 'We're still in the planning process seven years on and Ringsend is running out of capacity,' Laffey says, warning that Ringsend could reach its limits by 2028. 'Ultimately we either continue and allow the treatment plant to become overloaded to some extent. Or we just stop connections.' The whole of Dublin is dependent on this to be able to flush the toilet in five years — Developer Has Laffey told the Government of this threat to new housing? 'Yes.' How far away is the risk of a halt to housing connections? 'We are saying at the moment that the crunch will come in 2028,' he says, adding that a new GDD planning decision is expected in months but that 'interim measures' will be needed. 'If we don't go to judicial review again, we anticipate that plant will be in place in 2032,' he says. 'We should make it. It will be squeaky.' [ 'Constrained' water supply jeopardises new Dublin suburb with 6,000 planned homes Opens in new window ] Complicating matters further is that project costs have shot up. When the original GDD scheme went to tender, the price was €630 million. Now the estimate is €1.3 billion. 'That cost has increased by €700 million. No one's talking about it,' Laffey says. The LDA faces similar pressure. Coleman told an Oireachtas committee that a Judicial Review against permission for 1,000 homes at the former Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, Dublin, delayed the plans by two years. This added 'at least €30 million' to the €400 million project cost. So what is the solution to the cycle of delay, disarray and litigation? 'Ireland has created an objection manufacturing facility because the legal system allows for objectors to intervene at a very low level,' says a veteran of court battles. 'The legal threshold for objection is very low.' According to an informed source, one proposal under Government consideration is to cap the legal fees in judicial review cases on critical infrastructure. At present litigants can claim all their legal fees from the State if they successfully challenge an infrastructure project in court. The idea of imposing a cap on such costs, which has yet to be settled definitively, would limit fees to €35,000. With costs in some cases running to hundreds of thousands of euro, the aim would be to reduce the incentive for lawyers to take on judicial review actions on a 'no foal, no fee' basis. A further idea is to fast-track planning and any litigation on designated 'public interest' projects. [ The Irish Times view on infrastructure: stop making the same mistakes Opens in new window ] 'Could we have a policy for public good so that if we put in an application for a wastewater treatment plant it gets treated as a priority?' asks Laffey. 'If it ends up in the courts, it gets treated as a priority. We're not saying that people shouldn't have the right to object. Of course they should. But it should be treated in a way that is accelerated.' Another proposal is to move from the sequential submission of planning and consent papers to a system of parallel submissions made simultaneously, in effect telescoping a process that takes years to complete. More radical still would be measures to exempt the most critical utility projects from planning procedures. This would be highly controversial, certainly. But the risks posed by any failure to finally deliver the GDD project are significant. 'The whole of Dublin is dependent on this to be able to flush the toilet in five years,' says one developer who faces project delays because of constraints on water and power supplies. How grave is the electricity problem? Conroy estimates the network in the Republic is about 25 per cent below comparable European countries. 'In recent years there's been a shortage of generation capacity in the Irish power system,' he says. Niall Conroy, acting chief economist with the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. Photograph: Damien Eagers Industry regulators brought in emergency generation to fill the gap in the short term, but the machines burned fossil fuel. 'Ideally, if we are adding additional electricity generation capacity it should be in renewables.' The pressures on the network have been all too apparent for years. In 2021 national grid manager EirGrid curbed electricity access in Dublin for data centres, buildings that house highly energy-intensive computer systems for storing internet and business data. The next year new data-centre gas connections were stopped. This remains a matter of contention with big US tech groups. While industry figures say the curbs have driven big data-centre projects away from Ireland, ministers have been advised to 'ration' connections for new centres. Such tensions were set out in clear terms a month ago when Oonagh Buckley, secretary general of the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, spoke at a public meeting about trade-offs between housing needs and the power demands of the growing artificial intelligence (AI) industry. 'We're having to even think about prioritising what is the social need of the demand – is it housing or is it AI?' she said. This reflects the view that it is already a daunting challenge to meet the electricity needs of a growing population, before any discussion on data centres. Central Statistics Office (CSO) data shows total metered consumption of electricity grew 30 per cent between 2015 and 2024, with data centres taking up the overwhelming portion of the growth. Their share of power consumption doubled to 22 per cent in 2024 from 11 per cent in 2020 and more than quadrupled from 5 per cent in 2015. The increased share of demand came despite the addition of almost 204,000 residential meters to the network between 2015 and 2024. Tens of thousands of new homes are required to settle the housing crisis. However, developers on sites with hundreds of homes in certain areas of Dublin have been told electricity connections are not possible without new power substations. Such infrastructure is critical, converting high-voltage electricity from power plants to lower-voltage supply for homes. ESB Networks says single individual homes can be connected within weeks, but new multiphase residential or industrial developments 'could require a very significant amount of new infrastructure' which is then subject to design, planning and procurement lead times. The company cites challenges securing viable sites for substations and requests for connections in areas of limited demand. Other issues include long lead times to procure kit. 'Network reinforcement projects can take a number of years to deliver,' it says. Transport timelines are also measured in years – and the more years that pass, the more costs rise. When Melis Maynar of Madrid met Ahern 22 years ago, the projected costs for the original Dublin underground varied between €3.4 billion and €4.7 billion. Such figures, large as they are, now appear trifling. With MetroLink delivery not likely until some time in the 2030s, the project was costed in a range between €7 billion and €12 billion in 2021. But that was before post-Covid inflation set in. Now there are fears that costs, in the worst-case scenario, could balloon to €23 billion or even more. [ Dublin's Metrolink project could go 40% over budget and leave many homes 'grievously impacted' Opens in new window ] But Walsh of TII says the MetroLink plan is critical for climate targets. 'If there's any hope of decarbonising mobility in Dublin, we absolutely need to build the metro.' If MetroLink happens, the cost will be many multiples of the €1.45 billion Spain spent in the 1990s building 56km of Madrid metro lines in four years. This was helped by 24-hour tunnelling and Melis Maynar's aversion to fancy architecture, and his reluctance to fork out big fees to 'consultants who consult with consultants and advisers who advise advisers'. Without any tunnelling or tracks laid, the State has already paid dearly for metro planning. Spending on MetroLink had reached €181 million by July 2024. When the first metro plan was scrapped in 2011, the State wrote off €225 million of exchequer funding for the scheme. Infrastructure is always expensive but the consequences of failure could be even more costly.
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Dublin is the only large European capital without a metro: what would Leopold Bloom make of that?
Ireland's planning body, An Bord Pleanála, will determine later this year the fate of an ambitious proposal to build the country's first underground railway. Residents of the Irish capital won't be holding their breath, however. Since it was first proposed 25 years ago, MetroLink has been cancelled, revived and rebranded. The latest version of the plan, which involves just 18.8km of track, has been subject to delays, costs that have spiralled to five times the original estimate, and fierce opposition from homeowners, heritage bodies and businesses. A wide-awake city of tech firms, theatres and tourist attractions, Dublin is one of the EU's richest metropolitan areas; it is also the only large western European capital without a metro. No Dubliner would have been more frustrated with the situation's absurdities, and MetroLink's slow progress, than Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyce's Ulysses. Transport is never far from Bloom's thoughts as he traverses the city on 16 June 1904. His wife Molly's infidelity, the death of his friend Paddy Dignam, and fatherhood are uppermost in the advertising canvasser's mind, but he also repeatedly ruminates on a plan to build 'a tramline along the North Circular from the cattle market to the quays'. What begins as a passing observation about the scheme's likely impact on property prices near his home on Eccles Street becomes a fully fledged policy proposal by the day's end. Ulysses is a peripatetic story. For 17 or so hours, Bloom walks across Dublin, encountering friends, acquaintances and foes. From his 'sober' morning stroll down Westland Row, where he meets the disreputable CP M'Coy, to the 'parallel courses' that he and the inebriated poet Stephen Dedalus follow from Beresford Place to Eccles Street, Bloom covers nearly nine miles on foot. It is little wonder how tired he is by the time he climbs into bed next to Molly. A first-rate flâneur, Bloom is also a keen student of Dublin transport, which continually vexes him. On Westland Row, he is distracted from M'Coy's tedious talk by a white-stockinged woman leaving the Grosvenor hotel. When a 'heavy tramcar honking its gong' obscures his line of sight, Bloom curses the driver's 'noisy pugnose'. Later that evening, the adman witnesses a drunken altercation between Dedalus and his disloyal companion, Buck Mulligan, at Westland Row station. Concerned for Dedalus's safety, Bloom follows the young man to Nighttown, but the good samaritan misses his stop. By the time Bloom reaches Dublin's red-light district, Dedalus is about to have his jaw bashed in by two British soldiers. These are not the only instances in Ulysses in which the city's transport system is uncooperative. At Nelson's pillar, a hoarse-voiced timekeeper dispatches trams with great energy for Rathgar and Terenure, Sandymount Green and Palmerston Park. However, the trams soon stand motionless after a power cut. As 'Hackney cars, cabs, delivery waggons, mailvans, private broughams' and 'aerated mineral water floats' rattle by, the traffic that Bloom seeks to alleviate with his plan worsens. 'I can't make out why the corporation doesn't run a tramline from the parkgate to the quays. All those animals could be taken in trucks down to the boats,' suggests Bloom to his fellow mourners, as Dignam's funeral cortege crawls to Glasnevin cemetery. The tramline should be extended there, Bloom adds, to run 'municipal funeral trams like they have in Milan'. Bloom's passion for public works is longstanding and not surprising for a character who in his youth had considered standing for parliament and who in Joyce's imagination subscribed to 'the collective and national economic programmes' of radical Irish nationalists. Although Bloom's political fervour has waned, he remains a nationalist. To him, nationalism is not about the Irish language, which he doesn't speak, or political violence, which he abhors. It is about the opportunity to govern Ireland for the better, starting with infrastructure. In pre-independence Ireland, British power is ever present in Dublin on 16 June 1904. It is also palpably decaying. The viceregal cavalcade carrying the king's representative in Ireland through the city goes 'unsaluted' by a resident pondering whether it is quicker to get to Phibsborough 'by a triple change of tram or by hailing a car or on foot'. Here again, Dublin's system of public transport is found wanting, but the viceroy is neither interested nor empowered to act. In Nighttown, Bloom experiences a frightening phantasmagoria in which he is suddenly appointed lord mayor of Dublin. His immediate suggestion that the city builds a tramline 'from the cattlemarket to the river' provokes vigorous nods from the assembled aldermen, but the crowd soon threaten Bloom with boiling oil. Back home in Eccles Street, Bloom gives free rein to his political imagination as part of a bedtime ritual which produces 'sound repose and renovated vitality'. However, his train of thought soon circles back to what has by now become a detailed policy prospectus for the new tramline. The scheme will be funded, he suggests, by 'graziers' fees' and guaranteed by 'eminent financiers'. Ulysses's fixation with transport minutiae doesn't just provide colour and comic relief. It carries Joyce's own hopes for a new Ireland that realises its potential. Through his increasingly intricate tram scheme, Bloom symbolises the sort of progressive reformer that the writer believes can cure the country's political paralysis. Molly Bloom, in contrast, embodies Joyce's simultaneous fear that Irish politics will forever be all talk. Her husband's sermons about Sinn Féin are no more than 'trash and nonsense', she suggests. Public investment and technology have transformed Dublin for the better since 1904, but Leopold Bloom would still recognise its transport system's many deficiencies. Its cost. Its patchy coverage. Its occasional power cuts. Recent studies suggest that the Irish capital is one of the most congested cities in the world and that its public transport is among the least affordable in Europe. From London's Crossrail to the Grand Paris Express, European cities are upgrading their public transport systems, but Ireland's notoriously centralised governing structures have left its capital with limited say over its own development. An elected mayor would help, but this idea is no closer to reality than during Bloom's fevered visit to Nighttown. After 25 years of talk, MetroLink needs to see light at the end of the tunnel soon. However frustrated Bloom would have been over the project's delays, he would have nodded vigorously at its proposed route, especially the section from Glasnevin to Mater station on his own Eccles Street. Now, if only the planners insisted on livestock wagons and funeral cars, Dublin would have a scheme worthy of its most famous fictional resident and the 'world's greatest reformer'. Dermot Hodson is professor of political economy at Loughborough University and the author of Circle of Stars: A History of the EU – and the People Who Made It
Irish Times
09-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Engineering consultancy Ramboll interested in Metrolink bid
Engineering consultancy Ramboll has expressed an interest in bidding for work on the Dublin metro , the proposed rail line connecting the city centre with its airport , says one of the firm's executives. Denmark-based Ramboll specialises in transport development among other areas and is involved in work for the Government and State airports company, DAA . Ann Gordon, the firm's market director for transport in the UK and Ireland, says Ramboll would be interested in working on Metrolink, as the project is now known. 'There is no doubt that we would want to be involved with a project like Metrolink,' Ms Gordon said. READ MORE The Government has pledged that the project, debated for decades, is going to happen. Transport Infrastructure Ireland 's plan, submitted to An Bord Pleanála , connects Charlemont on the capital's southside with Swords and north Co Dublin, via the city centre and the airport. It ties in the Luas, the Dart and existing rail services. However, the time taken to get this far with the project, a cost estimated at up to €23 billion and potential planning objections mean many are sceptical about the prospect of any Metrolink being completed by the 2035 target date. Ms Gordon says the proposed rail line was badly needed. 'When you arrive in Dublin Airport, what it's lacking is that connectivity with the centre of the capital,' she said. Dublin is one of the few European capital cities not to have a direct rail link with its airport. However, the number of buses serving the airport from the city and other centres has grown in recent years. The Ramboll executive also said that the 32 million a year passenger limit on Dublin Airport needs to be addressed. Legal action has suspended the limit, and the airport expects to handle about 36 million passengers this year, but the condition, imposed by planners in 2007 to control road traffic, remains in place. Ramboll works regularly with Dublin and Cork airports operator, DAA, as well as Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the Government. The Department of Transport recently hired the company to advise on electric vehicle infrastructure. That work will involve comparisons with five other EU cities, financial analysis, procurement and risk assessments, the company has said. It is also working on the A5 dual carriageway, linking Derry with the N2 to Dublin. Ms Gordon is based in St Alban's in Britain but comes originally from Co Carlow, so is familiar with the transport challenges the State faces. Owned by the Ramboll Foundation and its workers, who have around 3 per cent of the business, Ramboll is a global architecture, engineering and consultancy business with operations in 35 countries. The company's key areas of expertise include building, transport, energy, environment, water management, architecture and landscape.
