Planning body gives MetroLink green light
An Coimisiún Pleanála has granted approval for the Railway Order that paves the way for the construction of Dublin’s MetroLink.
The order authorises all necessary works for the construction of MetroLink, a fully automated and mostly underground metro route of around 19km in length, from Swords to Dublin city centre, via Dublin Airport.
, the planning body said that proposed development enjoyed “very strong policy support at national, regional and local levels in terms of planning, transport, and climate policy”.
Acknowledging that residential and commercial premises would be affected during the construction stage, the commission said that such impacts “must be balanced against the very significant wider societal benefits and common good that will accrue from the provision of a high-quality underground rail system”.
'Critical project'
It said that the long-term benefits outweighed the construction-stage effects, adding that none of these would give rise to “an unacceptable impact” that would justify the refusal of the Railway Order.
A statement from Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien, National Transport Authority interim chief executive Hugh Creegan, Transport Infrastructure Ireland chief executive Lorcan O’Connor, and MetroLink programme director Seán Sweeney welcomed the decision.
They said that the decision would facilitate what they described as “a critical nation-building project for Ireland’s future”.
The Department of Tranport said that Minister O’Brien would bring proposals to Government to establish MetroLink as a statutory delivery body responsible for the construction of the project.