Dublin's Luas light rail system is now likely to cost in excess of £500 million more than double the estimate given in 1996, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, has conceded.
At a press briefing yesterday to announce the awarding of a £196 million contract to build the Tallaght and Sandyford lines, she said inflation in construction and property acquisition costs were largely to blame. for the overrun. Other factors include changing the specifications for the Sandyford line so that it can be upgraded later.
However, the Minister emphasised that Luas was still on schedule to start running in 2003 - providing that all the agencies involved pull together. Ms O'Rourke was referring to the fourth progress report by the Light Rail Advisory/Action Group, which was also published yesterday. It warned that "lack of inter-agency co-operation is now putting the programme at risk".
The group's chairman, Mr Padraic White, said other agencies did not share the Luas timetable priority and this had resulted in "slowness of decision-making, delays in funding allocation for related works and lack of speed of implementation".
The report specifically mentions delays over the relocation of facilities at St James's Hospital and roadworks by South Dublin County Council at the Longmile Road to facilitate the Tallaght Luas line - because of "funding problems".
Mr White also noted there had been a "slippage" of five months in awarding the main contract to lay the track-bed and do the mechanical work associated with it. But he said the group still believed that Luas would start running "during the year 2003".
The main contract for Line A (Tallaght-Middle Abbey Street), Line B (Sandyford-St Stephen's Green) and Line C (Middle Abbey Street-Connolly Station) has been awarded to a joint venture comprising Ansaldo of Italy and MVM of Australia. The value of the contract is in excess of £196 million (€250 million). Announcing that work would begin in the coming weeks, Ms O'Rourke said she was "glad that the last major piece of the light-rail jigsaw is now in place".
