Latest news with #DarraghOBrien
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Business
- Irish Times
BusConnects route will come in ‘on time, on budget', says Darragh O'Brien
Darragh O'Brien has pledged that the first of 12 BusConnect corridors in Dublin will come in 'on budget and on time'. Construction is due to begin on the 9.2km Liffey Valley to Dublin city centre route in September after a contract worth up to €274 million was signed with Irish company GMC Group Ltd. Announcing the launch on Thursday, the Minister for Transport said 'it's going to transform bus use within the city' along with significant cycling and walking facilities. Passenger numbers are predicted to increase by 58 per cent with faster travel times. The project is expected to take about three years, he said. Asked about the potential for delays, Mr O'Brien acknowledged he and interim National Transport Authority (NTA) chief executive Hugh Creegan would have responsibility. READ MORE But he said he emphasised to GMC that construction should be 'on time and on budget'. 'That's what we will do our level best to ensure and we have built contingency into this contract too,' he said. 'I think most people understand from a lot of the projects that we build here this is a medieval city. The routes have been mapped and have been surveyed as well. But we're looking at a three-year build on this. If we can do it sooner than that we will, but we're being realistic about it.' Planning for all 12 corridors has been approved, but a number remain subject to High Court judicial review. BusConnects aims to 'transform' bus services. The corridors will cover 230km of dedicated bus lanes overall with 200km of cycling infrastructure. The Liffey Valley scheme is to start at Fonthill Road and connect to the Liffey Valley shopping centre bus interchange. It will continue through Coldcut Road and Ballyfermot village before moving along Sarsfield Road, Grattan Crescent, Emmet Road, James's Street, Thomas Street and High Street, connecting to and the city centre transport network. It will be accompanied by 13.3km of improved cycling infrastructure. Mr O'Brien said the bus corridors were 'really significant', while the proposed MetroLink will be 'transformational ... not just for Dublin, but for the region, and indeed for our airport'. The railway line will link the city centre and Dublin Airport. He rejected comments by Ryanair group chief executive Michael O'Leary , who said the MetroLink project was a waste of money. Mr O'Brien said Ryanair has changed aviation across Europe, but 'this isn't just about the airport or airport connectivity'. North Dublin is a major growth area and MetroLink enabled further economic development for the airport, 'but above and beyond the airport, more housing development along the route, too'. The business case for MetroLink showed a €4 return on every €1 invested. 'It's a badly needed project,' he said, adding: 'We're the fifth-best connected airport in Europe. We're one of the few without a direct rail link into the city and beyond.' Asked about the introduction of contactless payments on public transport, Mr O'Brien said this should be phased in from the end of 2027 or in 2028.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Transport police recruitment could start by end of 2026, Minister says
Recruitment for a new, separate transport police force could begin by the end of 2026, Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien said. The new force would have powers of arrest, detention and pursuit, he told Newstalk's Pat Kenny show. It would take 'nine to 12 months' to get legislation through the Dáil and Seanad, but the Minister said he believed the proposal would get support across the Oireachtas. In the meantime, the Minister said, his department will continue to work with An Garda Síochána . Mr O'Brien said the force, while separate to the gardaí, 'will supplement the work the guards are doing. It is important, though, this will be a State security force, looking after transport and will be uniformed'. READ MORE The new transport police would have powers akin to airport police, he said. 'What we're looking at are powers of arrest and detention and pursuit. 'If you're on a Luas line and someone does something on the Luas and actually gets off the Luas, you'll need someone to be able to pursue that person. This is something that we will deliver and it will require legislation. I've already worked with the Minister for Justice on this, and indeed with my own team, and, really importantly too, with the stakeholders ... I think we can start recruiting by the end of next year.' Mr O'Brien said there was already a focused campaign by gardaí on public transport incidents. 'What I want to do is be able to assist them. To be fair to our bus and train operators, people will also see greater private security right now in place. So we're going to continue to do that.' Earlier this year Dublin Bus said there was a significant increase in antisocial behaviour on the capital's buses, including violent and racist threats. Reports of antisocial behaviour on the Dublin Bus network have more than doubled since before the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, there were 494 reported incidents while last year there were 1,053.
BreakingNews.ie
a day ago
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Recruitment for public transport police force could begin by end of next year
Recruitment for a public transport police force could begin by the end of next year. Plans are underway to introduce legislation to create uniform security, which would have powers of arrest and detention. Advertisement The Government is considering the measure as a method to improve safety on trains, buses, and trams, and encourage more people to use the service. Transport Minister, Darragh O'Brien, said there is a clear need for the presence. "Those who don't use public transport have a worse perception of it but it is one of the reasons why people who don't use it, don't use it," he said. "There are certain backspots. We have started the work already on the creation of a transport security force. "We will have to bring in legislation, and it will supplement the work the guards are doing. This will be a state security force, and what we're looking at is powers of pursuit."
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Renewable fuel source faces curbs on back of fraud fears
Suppliers argue that Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien risks overstepping the mark if he curbs imports of some green transport fuel on the back of fears over fraud. Mr O'Brien recently ended an extra incentive for the use of processed palm oil mill effluent (pome) as biofuel after the National Oil Reserves Agency conceded that production in some Far Eastern countries was high enough to spark concerns about fraud. Biofuel producers here and in Europe have been warning that exporters in the Far East are labelling actual palm oil, which the European Union does not classify as a renewable fuel, as pome. This allows them sell huge quantities of fraudulently labelled palm oil cheaply, undercutting European producers who play by the rules. Pome is the waste produced from manufacturing palm oil. The EU allows its use as biofuel, which means it benefits from incentives to encourage green road transport fuel in member states. READ MORE The Republic obliges suppliers to ensure that up to 25 per cent of the petrol and diesel they sell is renewable. However, up to this month, this obligation fell by a third if they used pome, making it a cheaper option for oil companies. Mr O'Brien ended this incentive at the beginning of the month and has not ruled out imposing a limit on pome imports. That is a step that industry body, Fuels for Ireland, says would go too far. Kevin McPartland, the organisation's chief executive, argues that the problem lies not with pome, but with enforcement at both European Union and national level. The Government should wait for a new EU biofuel database, due shortly, that will allow greater scrutiny of companies producing pome and other green fuels manufactured from waste, he argues. However, while European producers say the database is a step in the right direction, they maintain that the risk of fraud is now so high that curbs may ultimately be the only way of tackling the problem. Whether or not Mr O'Brien curbs imports, it looks like he will face a row with one or other element of the State's fuel industry.
Irish Times
23-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Eager Ministers line up for their spending money as Coalition announces National Development Plan
'Here's your envelope of money now for next year. That's all you're getting. So don't go spending it all on the one developer!' Picture the scene: Government Ministers lined up before the Taoiseach after a final Cabinet meeting to definitively nail down the lack-of-detail in the rebooted National Development Plan (NDP). Micheál Martin sits at a table with Tánaiste Simon Harris beside him. When he greets each nervous-looking Minister by name, Simon rummages through a box, finds a corresponding envelope and hands it to Micheál, who hands it on to a silent Cabinet member. READ MORE 'One for you ... one for you ... one for you ...' Ministers back out the door, scuttle off to quiet corners and, with trembling hands, rip open their envelopes. Anxious advisers hover nearby. Colleagues lean in, all ears. 'Two point two billun,' announces Patrick O'Donovan, the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport. 'Arragh, 'tis all right, I suppose.' 'I got nine point two billion. Whoop! Whoop!' carols Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, the Minister for Health. 'Twenty-two point three billion. Not bad Patrick, wha? I'm off now to New York to address the UN,' chortles Darragh O'Brien, Minister for Transport. 'Well. Oh. I've got seven hundred and ninety-five million,' says Norma Foley, the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, voice trailing off. And so on. An ashen-faced James Browne, the Minister for Housing, is last one out. He carefully opens his envelope. 'They've given me thirty-five point nine billion. Oh God.' It's a lot of responsibility. For all of them. Between now and the actual budget in October, the various Ministers have been ordered by their Government masters to come up with the best and most feasible ways to spend their money. 'Each individual Minister has now received an envelope,' the Taoiseach told the Tuesday launch. 'They have huge, significant envelopes.' The next step is that they must identify priority projects, cost them and get cracking. In an ideal world, they should have no money left over at the end of the financial year and concrete results to show for their work. No pie-in-the-sky promises to keep constituents sweet and voters in high hopes. No woolly lists of works pending and possible completions. Just real deals, shovel-ready schemes and projects in the pipeline. This is not the same as the last plan, which was launched four years ago by then taoiseach Micheál Martin in Cork and which promised 'a huge pipeline of projects'. It was produced in the aftermath of the Covid crisis and called the 'renewed NDP'. The new model is called the 'revised NDP'. The difference between them? Over €100 billion. Back then, the word being bandied about was 'gigantic' when it came to describing the depth of capital investment in the plan. 'It's on a scale the like of which we've never seen before,' said Michael McGrath, who was minister for public expenditure at the time and has since become Ireland's EU Commissioner. That's peanuts now. At the time, Micheál had to deny claims that the Government merely came up with a 'wish list' of things to do rather than a 'to-do list' of things that would most likely be done. The 2021 version was roundly criticised for having too much detail. The 2025 edition is being roundly criticised for having very little detail. 'It was too long. The last NDP was too big a document, to be quite frank,' shrugged Micheál at the launch of this shrinkflation declaration. It's a very slim volume – nearly a quarter of the size of what went before. If the last one ran to almost 200 pages, the revised NDP runs to 46 pages, 11 of which are devoted to the names of chapters. Jack Chambers of Commerce, the Minister for Public Expenditure, gets a full page for his foreword and the 'three leaders' get another page for their foreword. The 'three leaders', as they were described at the beginning of the briefing, being the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and Seán Canney, who is a Minister of State and leader of the Coalition Supporters' Club. The CSC is bravely battling for the right not to be known as the Lowry Independents. The rejigged NDP 'is unprecedented in scale and scope', said the Tánaiste. 'But now, our watchword must be delivery.' 'The scale and scope of this review of the National Development Plan is unprecedented,' said Seán, speaking on behalf of 'the Independent Ministers who I represent on the podium here today'. He omitted to say that their watchword is delivery too. Indeed, it was unkindly suggested at the event in Government Buildings press centre that the main reason for such a lack of detail – apart from announcing how many billions are being lashed out on infrastructure and in what quantities and what general areas – was that the Government doesn't want the Opposition to know how much has been allocated for the pet projects championed by members of the Coalition Supporters' Club. Despite repeated questioning, the three leaders were unable to give specific detail of how all this money will be spent, apart from a few 'mega-projects' such as the long-awaited Dublin's MetroLink, which is now on a par with draining the Shannon. [ Ireland's latest investment plan: A sceptic's guide Opens in new window ] It was a pity the Minister for Transport couldn't be present to supply more information, but he was in New York making a statement on behalf of Ireland at the UN High-level Political Forum. Probably the best place for him to be. 'There's more chance of world peace than a Dublin metro,' remarked one veteran of promises past. It was an upbeat performance by Martin, Harris and Canney. With a fair wind and calm economic conditions, this NDP will work wonders, they promised. The framework is in place, the money is allocated and all that needs to be done is for the Ministers to get to work. Or, as Micheál put it: 'The bottom line is that a major infrastructure plan is now agreed ... and Ministers will deal with the sectoral manifestations of that in the next number of weeks.' Simple. Or is it? Next up were the two money men: Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers. They were not as optimistic about the future, but they tried their best as they talked about the NDP and their just-released Summer Economic Statement (SES). This could turn out to be a Short-lived Economic Statement. It transpired that their figures are based on no tariff increases, whereas Ireland and the EU are waiting on tenterhooks to see if Donald Trump carries through on his threat to impose huge tariffs on goods exported to the US from August. Jack's hope is that, whatever happens, there is 'headroom to deliver additionality'. 'We are going to take a flexible approach,' said Paschal. It's all about 'certainty', they agreed. And what is certain is that they will tweak things depending on what happens in the run-up to the budget. If there is a serious economic deterioration, 'we will revisit it', said Jack. So really, this was more a Provisional Economic Statement (PES) than a summer economic statement. Taking the PES with this SES, is what the Opposition will probably say in the Dáil. Oh, wait. There is no Dáil until September. Brilliant timing.
