DART+ South West funding
Shane Moynihan called for priority funding for DART+ South West and interim bus services to address congestion amid rapid housing growth. The Taoiseach backed the project and said funding was allocated for planning, design and procurement between 2026 and 2030.
My constituency of Dublin Mid-West is one of the constituencies in the State in which hundreds and thousands of new homes are being built for families. It is important that infrastructure keeps up with this rapid housing growth and one particular area is public transport. Congestion is now a feature of life for people in Lucan, Clondalkin, Adamstown and Clonburris. This is why it is important that we bring forward the funding for DART+ South West as a priority, to enable the building of new houses and to enable a quality of life, and, in the interim period, to fund the bus services that are needed to connect people in Adamstown and Clonburris to the city centre, taking pressure off existing services in the constituency and to see whether additional carriages can be put on the train lines to support commuters in Clondalkin, Kishoge, Adamstown and Hazelhatch. This is a priority to bring people with us as we zone land for housing and to show them that housing growth should not impact on the overall quality of life in the communities we all represent.
Comment on this
I fully agree with Deputy Moynihan in respect of the centrality of infrastructure. The DART+ South West project is key enabler in the overall programme that would quadruple peak-hour capacity on the line from 5,000 passengers to 20,000 passengers. It would be a significant game changer. Since the Deputy first raised this issue with me, I have been in touch and I have been advocating very strongly with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and the Minister of State, Deputy Canney. Funding has been allocated to DART+ South West to progress to planning and design and procurement between 2026 and 2030. I hope the Minister will be in a position to confirm realising the project. Deputy Moynihan is right in terms of the bus services. Hopefully the Minister will be in a position to expand public transport services in particular in 2027. A total of 140 services are due to be expanded and hopefully Clonburris will be part of this.