Comprehensive Varadkar interview on the big transport plans (Pat Kenny Show)

Can anyone summarise the key points he made?

some commuting stuff along with infrastructre:

He is a fan of the private busses and is very open to licence requests for new routes that are subsidy neutral. Sang praises ofthe swords express

At the same time - he said "he would not tolerate" cherry picking of the most profitable bus routes by private operators leaving the bad routes to the state run operators.

no plans for privitisation of dublin bus / bus eireann (if i heard that right?)

Integrated ticketing to finally come this year to dublin

regional airport subsidies to be cranked back gradually to a more manageable amount of regional airport - "theres an airport in every county on the western seaboard and each is undermining the survivability of the next "

very uncommited to the big Dublin rail projects - but not because he is not in favour in principle - its whether the cash can be found/ justified

Also mentioned that the dart airport spur cant be implemented on the back of weakening of services to malahide etc and also has to contend with the connolly station congestion

400million for the omagh/ derry motorway - not his baby so not his to cut, that'd be a north south matter for the taoiseach!!

Dublin bus subsidies have gone from a pitance to a right heap so they are for the chop over time

Also no eagerness to kill rail services which are being undermined somewhat by free/ cheap speedy motorways.

The cost of maintenance of the swish motorways though should be over time more reflected in more but smaller tolls ("60c a go" i think was mentioned) BUT he acknowledged that currently the motorist already pays huge money in taxes and vrt so its not somthing thats going to happen in the short term

all in all, no eagerness to do anything too hasty

Completely agree with MYOB. More clarity and knowledge from Varadkar on his brief than any FF transport minister in recent years. Although we've no idea what he's going to do during his term of office (and as munchkin says, it looks like precious little in the short term) it's heartening that he knows what he's talking about and is talking straight.

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Any mention of the Galway bypass in all of that? After Newlands and M11 gap it should be the priority.

Not that I heard.

I may have missed it as it was a fairly Long interview and I was trying to work at the same time!!
There's loads of stuff on there that I didn't include as I only focused in when I hard stuff I was interested in, and rewinded if needed

What he did mention in passing was that they hope to have dun kettle sorted before the end of this governments term.

Edit: according to a quote on the roads forum, m18 Guam gort along with the M11 and new lands cross are the priorities to get financing and underway.

The general vibe though was that big ticket stuff for hundreds of millions and multiple billions is all depending on external finance and the focus is to try and get as much value for money as possible off the rest.

munchkin_utd wrote: »

some commuting stuff along with infrastructre:


400million for the omagh/ derry motorway - not his baby so not his to cut, that'd be a north south matter for the taoiseach!!

I don't understand how a project like this in the currect climate can go ahead, i'm all for integration with the north but the economic benefit to the republic form this will be very little while at the same time important routes like the N20/M20 cork limerick road are not being mentioned.

Where is the British funding for these road projects??

dubhthach wrote: »

Well as far as I recall the idea was spilt the funding 50% so we'd put up €400 million and Westminster would put up the same.

As for economic benefit, well the area within 30km of Derry has a population of about 230,000 (this includes big chunks of East Donegal). Enabling faster access to Dublin can only have an economic benefit for businesses on both side of the Border.

Thanks for the speedy reply

400million for the omagh/ derry motorway - not his baby so not his to cut, that'd be a north south matter for the taoiseach!!

Hmmm, should those who are in favour of this route breathe a sigh of relief or is this just Varadkar dodging the 400m euro question?

Since the previous DRD minister Conor Murphy said that the A5 will go ahead at all cost, even if funding is not forthcoming from the south. (At the expense of other NI projects) would this be an opportunity for the South to pull out?

Some may be interested in knowing that in today's Belfast Telegraph and then on BBC Newsline it was speculated that Sinn Fein will give up Education in favour of the Enterprise ministry swapped with the DUP. SF's pro NW agenda may see resources funnelled to getting FDI into the NW further increasing the need for the A5 DC. It is also widely anticipated that they will also retain DRD.

antoobrien wrote: »

Add to that he wants the 3 road PPP schemes (N17/18, Rathnew/Newlands, & New Ross) to go ahead this year, but states that funding is an issue for PPPs relying on the public purse (implied that if these were toll roads there'd be less of a problem with finance).

Interview also available for download

By New Ross does he mean the New Ross Bypass / Barrow Bridge project which was supposed to start after the Waterford Bridge / Bypass?

black diamond wrote: »

Spanish company who built m6 offer to build Tuam gort motorway!

black diamond wrote: »

From Twitter! Con tribune tom has full report supposely!

It's in the Connacht Tribune today, details in the M17/18 thread. IIRC they hadn't originally tendered, so it may have to be re-tendered.