Plans for a proposed metro system in Dublin have been put on hold indefinitely.

The Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar said funding would not be available for the Metro West project in the foreseeable future.

Metro West is a transport system which was to run from an intersection with Metro North, just south of the airport at Santry, and from there pass through Blanchardstown, Liffey Valley, and Clondalkin before joining the Red Line of the Luas to continue towards Tallaght.

The plans indicated that the development would be entirely above ground, at road level, with major junctions overpassed.

-- Advertisement --

Minister Varadkar said: "Acting on the advice of the National Transport Authority (NTA), I have instructed the Railway Procurement Agency to withdraw its application for a Railway Order from An Bord Pleanála".

"Metro West was to be procured as a Public Private Partnership (PPP). However, a significant Exchequer contribution would also have been required. The successful awarding of a major PPP contract involving private funding is challenging at any time but particularly in current circumstances. No major PPP project has secured funding since the financial crisis began three years ago."

He added that Metro West was not being cancelled, but that Government funding would not be forthcoming and that private funding had not been secured either as part of the Public Private Partnership deal.

The Government is still considering which, if any, rail projects will precede as part of the review of capital spending

It is understood that Metro West will be examined again at a future stage when the country's finances have improved.

(LB/BMcC)