Continuing leaks in the Dublin Port Tunnel will be fixed within ten days, Dublin City Council said today.
It emerged this morning that leaks - first detected in January - have persisted and the structure is letting in 25 litres of water a minute. It is due to open in May, subject to a full safety audit.
Fine Gael Dublin spokesman Senator Brian Hayes called on Minister for Transport Minister Martin Cullen to take responsibility for completing the project that he labelled a "fiasco"
"To date Martin Cullen has managed to avoid taking political responsibility for the Port Tunnel, thanks to the enthusiasm of his hapless former deputy, Ivor Callely, for the project," he said.
"However, the escalating scale of problems at the Port Tunnel demands top-level intervention from Minister Cullen himself, and he must now take full responsibility for the project as the Minister for Transport."
But city engineer Michael Philips said today: "The repair crew, the Italian crew, are back on site. We hope to get it repaired as quickly as we can".
"We're dependant on the contracter to have it repaired within the next ten days," he added.
Mr Philips said he was "confident" that the cost of the overall project - €752 million - would not rise.
"That is what the contract will be settled for... or not a significantly higher figure above that," he added.
In January Dublin city manager John Fitzgerald told a meeting of Dublin City Council that the leak to the tunnel then had received inordinate publicity, but it was being fixed and "is not causing any undue safety or programme concerns".
This afternoon a Dublin City Council spokeswoman denied that the leak was a major engineering problem.
"Bearing in mind that there are no time or safety, or cost implications arising from the leak and that the situation has not dis-improved, in our opinion it does not justify the extensive, negative media coverage it has attracted," she said in a statement.
