The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has said the LUAS light rail system for Dublin will be on time and on budget, despite reports today that the contractors are seeking extra funds to complete the project.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin today, the minister said the LUAS project would be delivered next summer at a total cost of €765 million.
In its latest report to the minister, the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) said it anticipated the entire €90 million contingency provision in the LUAS contract would be used up, in addition to the budgeted cost of €675 million.
A report in today's Irish Timessaid the contractors AMB JV were seeking an extra €50 million to complete the two lines between the city centre and Sandyford and Tallaght. It said the minister had told the RPA not to give the contractors "a penny more" than the original €675 plus the €90 million contingency.
Mr Brennan said he had been assured by the RPA today that the project was on time and within the €765 million budget.
"It's not fair to compare prices today with original, almost guesstimates, before the contract," he said.
"You can only really compare it from the date the contract was signed. It's within budget and it's within time."
The minister also urged people to "give LUAS a chance" and said they would be proud of it when it started running. He said he believed the three-year contract for LUAS was "probably the correct amount of time" to build such a city system and pointed out that the contractors had been on site for just two years.
The Labour Party said today the LUAS project was "descending into farce", while Fine Gael blamed Government incompetence for the complaints over the project.
Traders in central Dublin have complained that the slow pace of development outside their premises is costing them business. The chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Mr Eoin Ryan TD, attacked the RPA, saying it did not "appreciate the effect its [the LUAS] construction is having on the city".
Labour's transport spokeswoman, Ms Roisin Shortall, said the latest controversy raised a question over the agency's ability to deliver the metro.
"The development of the LUAS is rapidly descending into farce. . . . The involvement of the RPA in this project does not generate much confidence for the future of other projects like the Metro.
"That the agency does not know the final cost or the date of delivery of the Luas is extremely shocking for the people of Dublin who have waited for seven years for it," Ms Shortall said.
Fine Gael's transport spokesman, Mr Denis Naughten, said the Government had "serious questions to answer" over the cost transport projects in the State.
He criticised the cost of consultants, saying a cap should be put on the cost of their work for major capital projects as part of a major overhaul of how transport projects are paid for.
"The taxpayer should not have to foot the bill for major transport projects because of someone else's incompetence," Mr Naughten said.
The RPA insists the LUAS lines will be completed by their respective June and August 2004 deadlines and that major construction in the city centre will be finished by Christmas.