{"id":43553,"date":"2025-09-04T17:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/43553\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T17:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:16:10","slug":"years-long-wait-for-metrolink-planning-permission-could-deter-international-investors-senior-director-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/43553\/","title":{"rendered":"Years-long wait for MetroLink planning permission could deter international investors, senior director says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A senior figure behind MetroLink<\/a> says it is \u201cunhelpful\u201d that the rail project has yet to secure planning permission, given the urgent need to attract international backers to develop the line.<\/p>\n

Michael Flynn, MetroLink deputy programme director, was speaking to reporters ahead of a major event at The Helix in Dublin<\/a> on Thursday. The event was planned to drum up market interest to build the 18.8km rail line, which is expected to cost in excess of \u20ac10 billion.<\/p>\n

The history of the Metro North project, a similar proposed line that was scrapped in 2011, made large infrastructural investors \u201cquestion whether Dublin and Ireland is serious about building MetroLink”, Mr Flynn said.<\/p>\n

This was compounded by the lack of a decision from An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la<\/a> \u2013 the planning commission \u2013 on the Railway Order application. The application was submitted three years ago and sought for the line to run from Swords in north Dublin to Charlemont in the south of the capital, serving Dublin Airport and the city.<\/p>\n

\"GuestsGuests arrive at the MetroLink Market Engagement Event at The Helix in Dublin on Thursday. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

The MetroLink Market Engagement Event, which also heard from Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin and T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris, was attended by close to 800 representatives of engineering and construction firms. The event was organised months ago, in anticipation of the planning commission giving the project the green light.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Consortium of five international companies to bid for MetroLink projectOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, despite indicating several months ago that it intended to issue its decision by the end of the summer, the commission has yet to decide whether to grant the Railway Order necessary for the project to go ahead.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s event was, according to Mr Flynn, \u201can opportunity for us to announce to the national and international market that we are coming into the market to seek partners to build MetroLink\u201d.<\/p>\n

The project needed to attract \u201cvery large international contractors\u201d, he said. Mr Flynn added: \u201cThere\u2019s been a tremendous amount of consolidation amongst those companies. So there\u2019s a very small pool of large international companies capable of doing this work. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are basically vying with the rest of the world to attract those big companies here to Dublin. And we\u2019re trying to demonstrate to them that this project is viable . . . We\u2019re trying to demonstrate that Dublin is the right place for them to choose and that we\u2019re the right project for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Dublin\u2019s MetroLink: How much will it really cost?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It was a \u201cseller\u2019s market\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to demonstrate that Dublin is the right place for them to choose and that we\u2019re the right project for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Flynn added that, in the eyes of these international organisations, the history of Metro North is a black mark against MetroLink.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things we find when you engage with these big international firms is that they all remind us they have spent an absolute fortune bidding on the Metro North project,” he said. \u201cThey question whether Dublin and Ireland is serious about building MetroLink, because they know they have other options available to them on the global stage. And that is a real concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lack of planning permission ahead of the market engagement event was \u201cunhelpful\u201d he said. \u201cIt would be better [to have planning permission] because it is a further reinforcement while we engage with these people, because it is one of the questions they ask us.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he was still confident the project could progress to procurement in the first quarter of next year, with construction beginning in 2027, which would allow services to begin in the mid-2030s.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said MetroLink was a \u201ctruly transformative investment for the entire country\u201d, adding that Government had \u201cclearly signalled\u201d its intention to invest in the project. \u201cIts tangible delivery will commence under this Government\u2019s leadership,\u201d the Taoiseach insisted.<\/p>\n

He stated that the funding for the project is \u201cnow in place\u201d, but conceded that the system for delivering critical infrastructure \u201cneeded to change . . . we\u2019re not saying we need to cut corners, but we need to cut out unnecessary steps\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A senior figure behind MetroLink says it is \u201cunhelpful\u201d that the rail project has yet to secure planning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,52,18,19,17,32837,4852,5765,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-43553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dublin","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-metro-north","14":"tag-metrolink","15":"tag-micheal-martin","16":"tag-simon-harris"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}