Opponents of the Dublin Port Tunnel are seeking full details of the cost of the project, after revelations that it is likely to cost £66 million more than originally estimated.
They have called on the tunnel's promoters - the National Roads Authority and Dublin Corporation - to publish "fully detailed costings of all elements of the project".
Last Saturday, The Irish Times disclosed that it is now likely to cost £196 million. Mr Fintan Cassidy, secretary of the Marino Development Action Group, said this was much higher than the previous estimate of £130 million.
He believes the tunnel is likely to turn in a "major negative economic performance" in any revised cost-benefit analysis.
This "would also cast doubts on the project's ability to pass the stringent audits" sought for EU Structural and Cohesion funding, and any shortfall "would in cutbacks, with safety being the first casualty," he said.
Marino residents were "already fearful enough of the plans to tunnel under their homes, using the cheapest and most dangerous method, NATM, without further worries about insufficient money being available to complete the project safely," he said
Until now, he said, the project team had "persistently reiterated" that the extra safety measures, recommended by Britain's Health and Safety Executive, and the cost of tunnelling deeper under Marino, were likely to fall within the earlier £130 million figure.
"We would like to know what has finally caused them to change their story," he said, referring to a report in The Irish Times last Saturday that the estimated cost of the port tunnel, which would link the M1 motorway with Dublin Port, had now reached £196 million.
