A new control system for major infrastructure projects has been ordered by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, in response to public concerns about costs, writes Christine Newman.
The Minister announced the new measures after the unveiling of the first tram for the Luas line from Sandyford to St Stephen's Green. The project is behind schedule and will now open to passengers in June 2004, instead of later this year.
The first monthly progress report on the Luas also shows that the budget increased from €675 million in 2001 to €691 million by the end of last year.
Yesterday, the Minister said he was happy that Luas was within the revised budget and that it would remain within it.
He discounted reports that costs were reaching €1 billion.
He said stringent monthly progress reports had been ordered on all transport and infrastucture projects that involved significant funding investment by the Department of Transport.
Mr Brennan said he would make public the findings of each monthly report.
"Considering the billions of euro that will be invested in major infrastructure projects over the next few years it is absolutely critical that we now get fully on top of the budgets, timing and delivery of these projects," he said.
Mr Brennan also announced that new cost control and project delivery measures were being introduced for the National Roads Programmes, which he said involved an investment of more than €1.2 billion in 2003.
"And in the area of public transport, for the first time new agreements will shortly be finalised that will set down targets on the reliability, quality and performance of the services to the public by the CIÉ companies," he said.
In order to bring greater transparency and accountability to the provision of State support for public transport services, service level agreements would for the first time shortly be agreed with the CIÉ companies, Mr Brennan announced.
"These agreements will set down the subvention to be paid by the Government and in return will specify the levels of service to be provided to the public by the companies, Iarnród Éireann, Bus Éireann and Bus Átha Cliath, including targets on reliability, quality and performance. These agreements will be monitored on a quarterly basis," he said.
Projects for which the reports have been ordered include the Luas, the Dublin Port Tunnel and a number of major road-building projects, including the M50 South Eastern Motorway, M1 Northern Motorway and the M7 Kildare bypass.
In addition to the monthly report, he had instructed the National Roads Authority to instigate a wide range of measures to improve cost estimation and control and to secure greater certainty in the outturn cost of individual projects.
The Minister said he was determined the State would get more for its money and would insist it got more roads and railways, for the money it was spending.
The monthly progress report of the Luas shows that the Railway Procurement Agency advised in February 2001 that the required budget was €675 million with an agreed add-on for contingency and risk.
By the end of 2002, the required budget was revised to €691 million.
The contractual completion dates were October 2003 for the Tallaght line and December 2003 for the Sandyford line. However, the report states these dates could not be met and that early 2004 was a more realistic date.
The new completion dates are for the Sandyford-St Stephen's Green line to begin passenger services in June 2004 and for the Tallaght-Connolly line in August 2004.