THE Government's decision to commission an independent study to assess the option of running the proposed Dublin light rail system Luas underground has been condemned as "time-wasting" and "posturing".
Mr Alan Dukes of Fine Gael said the decision could put EU funding for the project at risk, as the first phase - the Dundrum line - has to be completed by 2001 to satisfy the Commission.
"I can't understand why this decision has been made. There is an abundance of investigative material available, all of which shows that the underground option is prohibitively expensive and time-consuming."
As minister with responsibility for the proposal in the previous government, Mr Dukes rejected repeated calls to reopen the inquiry into the underground option.
He said the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, "should have looked at the evidence" before rushing into this decision.
"She is obviously keen to do something she promised in opposition although I advised her to take her time. It's a pity she's allowed, herself to be boxed into a corner.
Announcing the decision yesterday, Ms O'Rourke said it met a commitment in the Government's Action Programme for the New Millennium.
She denied that EU funding for the project might been put in jeopardy by the decision. "Funds won't be lost to Ireland."
While the study will be carried out as soon as possible, she was unable to give a time-frame.
"We are firmly convinced that it is far better to have a full evaluation of the system than to rush into something which will have a lasting impact on Dublin," Ms O'Rourke said; the study would be made public and evaluated "very briskly" by the Government.
She added that the Government had still not taken a definite position on which option it favoured.
An Environmental Impact Statement, submitted last May to the Department, said that putting Luas underground would cost up to twice as much as the on- street option.
The statement, commissioned by CIE, concluded there was "a high degree of risk" associated with an underground route, "due in part to the lack of detailed information on the geo-technical conditions in the city centre".
It said that the cost of relocating utilities, such as electricity, gas and telecommunications, as well as underground stations had been underestimated by supporters of the underground option.
Putting the entire city-centre stretch of Luas underground would cost an extra Pounds 308 million, it concluded.
