I notice the former Tánaiste is as far away from the current Tánaiste as she can get. There is no need for comment.

I wish to ask the Taoiseach about the recent announcement by the Government and the Minister for Transport of what is the biggest infrastructural project in the history of the State, the metro north to Swords which will go from St. Stephen's Green to Dublin Airport in 17 minutes with 15 stops.

The credibility of the Minister, Deputy Cullen, with regard to delivery, has been seriously damaged by his incapacity or his inability to give even an overall figure of what the cost will be. As the Tánaiste will be aware, for this project to succeed will require a national buy-in, absolute certainty as to the cost and the business case for investment and the consequent benefits to the customer and the consumer. This transparency is completely missing in this case.

The ESRI report issued today clearly states that major rail projects must be the subject of a full cost-benefit analysis and this makes sense. There is broad public support for the project. Anything that will tend to alleviate the frustration of hundreds of thousands of motorists, consumers and citizens in this city, is welcome. However, doubts are being expressed about this project. The number of occasions on which it has been announced previously and the failure of the Government to deliver on time and on budget on so many major projects in this city, leaves the credibility of the Minister for Transport in tatters.

I wish to ask the Taoiseach a straight question. What is his estimate of the cost of this project? Is it €1 billion, between €1 billion and €5 billion or as much as €15 billion, according to some estimates? What is the overall figure? Given that the taxpayer will be paying for this until 2040, is the Taoiseach prepared to state that the issues determining credibility of a project such as this, in terms of the case for investment being made and evaluation before the project is given the green light, will all be published so that the public at large will know exactly what is involved in the project? The Taoiseach has €3 billion of taxpayers' money in respect of which the Government has been unable to budget in the past. It must be transparent and be published so everybody understands what is involved.

I totally reject what Deputy Kenny said about the performance of the Minister for Transport. Under the Minister's watch we are seeing one of the best ever roll-outs of infrastructure. We are seeing this on all the main roads — the road to Belfast which is done, and the roads to Cork, Limerick and Waterford. Some €1.5 billion is being spent on roads infrastructure. On the rail programme, the main rail lines to Cork, Galway and Waterford have all been successfully enhanced.

I was delayed for a full hour.

In 18 of the last 19 contracts, the procurement and the contract system are coming in on time and on budget. Therefore, the first part of Deputy Kenny's assertion does not hold up and I should not bother to comment on it.

On the second issue, the cost assessment analysis has been done on the metro. There will be a further cost assessment analysis when we go to the market on the basis of PPPs and all the advices. We will not publish figures before going to the market. We have done the assessment. The RPA has completed a comprehensive consultation process and worked with its own and international teams, including a team from the UK which is familiar with this work and has been involved in some of the biggest contracts in Europe.

The metro north will be procured as a public private partnership, funded through annual availability payments over a period of 30 years which is what would be done with a large project like this anywhere in the world. The first availability payment is not due until the metro opens for passenger services. The capital costs included in the metro business case and the value of the annual availability payments remain commercially sensitive in advance of a public procurement. What dumbwit would go out to the market and state the benchmark at which one should quote? For God's sake let us have some sanity. One does not use one's assessment and go out to the market and suggest one should come in between A and B. What we would hope on this contract is to get some of the biggest contractors and PPP operations in the world to take an interest in this project at a competitive tender price. That is the way we should do it. Yes, we have our assessment but we will go to the market and have a second analysis. As in the case of any contract, the assessments will be transparent.

The same as e-voting.

One does not take a major infrastructural project and spell it out before testing the market and the interest from various parts of the world. That would be a nonsense. While the RPA has done careful assessments and will continue to do so I agree it is a huge project. I heard the same arguments a few years ago here about Luas, that we would never build it, the project would hit a brick wall, nobody would use it, it would always be late, cars would crash into it——

They did.

Now more than 23 or 24 million people use it. This project is being carefully thought out, carefully planned and will be carefully operated through the system. I assure Deputy Kenny that the assessment will be transparent because it involves a huge amount of public money.

That is something.

As he rightly said the project is required and will carry in the order of 20 million or 30 million people. We have to put it out to tender in a careful way and that is the way we will proceed.

Of course, the Taoiseach did not answer the question. He is asking us to take a leap of faith for Martin e-voting Cullen.

I thought the Deputy would be more original than that. That is Deputy Rabbitte's line.

I ask the Minister to hold on.

Is it dumb and dumber? Can the Deputy not say something original?

The Minister should allow Deputy Kenny to speak without interruption.

The Taoiseach has gone out of his way to defend the Minister's record. The problem is that during the past ten years none of those over there on the front row has had to shuffle through the queues at Dublin Airport or the traffic jams which the rest of us have to endure. Nor has any of them had to put up with the traffic lights being erected at the exit to the port tunnel. One can imagine the traffic jams when they become operational. With respect, for the past ten years, none of those on the front row, who have been cosseted by their civil servants and get VIP treatment on their way out of the country, has to accept what ordinary citizens put up with on a regular basis.

We are going to move the port.

The Taoiseach said with the benefit of rose-tinted glasses that the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, had had the project costed and evaluated. We have had all of this before on various projects including, in the Taoiseach's case, Campus and Stadium Ireland, where all the assessments, analyses and all the figures were supposed to be done on time and on budget and we saw the result of that. The Luas lines do not join up. The port tunnel is not yet opened, is five years behind time and has cost €700 million.

It would not have been built by the party of which the Deputy is a member. The Deputy was against it.

Allow Deputy Kenny to speak without interruption, please.

The Taoiseach is asking us to believe 30 weeks before a general election that big bores will be under St. Stephen's Green on the way out to Swords. He knows in his heart and soul that is not possible——

The Deputy is looking for a few votes.

The Chair will have to take appropriate action if the Minister for Transport does not allow Deputy Kenny to proceed uninterrupted.

The Taoiseach said it would be very dumb indeed to go to the market place seeking a ballpark figure. I remind him that the second phase of the M50 upgrade is a PPP project and the Government and the Minister for Transport have already announced it will come in at between €600 million and €700 million. That is an example of a major PPP project where the Government has given its ballpark figure, yet we are now asked to commit the entire nation to the biggest infrastructural project in the history of the country which the vast majority of the people will agree with intuitively but the Taoiseach will not tell the House the figure the RPA has arrived at, even in global terms. I shall ask the Taoiseach again. Does he agree that the M50 upgrade is a PPP project? Does he agree that the Government has already published a figure in respect of that? Will he commit himself to telling the nation the assessed figure? Is it €1 billion, €5 billion or €15 billion because we will be paying for this until 2040? If that man's record over there is anything to go by, this too will go down in flames.

Without getting into an argument the difference with the M50 is that the work has already commenced. It is in three phases and the work is under way.

The PPP has not come in yet.

Obviously when a contract is under way in the first phase, one knows the price. The second and third phases have been priced also. Based on the assessment, the feasibility study and the cost analysis done by the RPA we will go to the market before Christmas. Then we hope to see, although we can never be certain, interest from serious international operations. Not many companies in the world would be able to get involved in a project of this scale. There are probably only six to ten companies. That will give us the ballpark figures against which we will do a further cost analysis. For strategic reasons, we will not provide that figure. The RPA will carry out a second analysis at that stage against the tenders. It is not a project that will happen overnight. It is fair to say the cost assessment analysis, the tendering projects and the timescale, including on the Luas, have improved dramatically. Eighteen of the last 19 contracts came in on time.

To go to the market and state where we believe the market will be and not to allow the companies to compete against each other would not be wise. Nobody in the business has advised us to do anything other than what we are doing. I do not think we will have to wait many months to see what happens. There is no doubt it will be a very large contract and will take several years to complete but we do need it. That is clear from the figures at Dublin Airport this year where there were 21 million passengers. Only a few years ago we were told that by 2010 there would be 15 million passengers but in 2006 Dublin Airport already has 21 million passengers. We are now told that within a decade 35 million passengers will pass through the airport. A project such as this is required, as is the development of Dublin Airport. The plans of Dublin Airport Authority and the work on the M50 are all major construction projects that must be done as cost effectively as possible. They will be done over a 30 year period on a pay-back system from the State. That is the wise way to do this work. The Minister will keep the House informed but to set it out now is not the way to proceed.