Good morning,
The total size of the Defence Forces is about 7,500 personnel. Yesterday, the Oireachtas transport committee was told that Dublin’s planned new metro system will need about 8,000 workers to construct: so, it’s no exaggeration to say that - at least in an Irish context - it will need an army of workers.
The mind-bending scale of the MetroLink, which is the focus of our lead story today is beginning to reveal itself, bit-by-bit. And, for a country with a dismal recent record in delivery and state capacity, it is dauntingly huge.
Programme director Sean Sweeney told the committee on Wednesday that workers will have to be flown in from overseas to complete the project. “The top line is that the Irish construction industry cannot support construction of this project and even that is without factoring in the other major infrastructure projects that are in play at the moment as well,” he said. “I think we are going to exhaust the local workforce before we run out of work for them.”
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There will be a “large need” to accommodate all these workers, with talks apparently under way between Transport Infrastructure Ireland and MetroLink about backing apartment building to house all the workers.
It’s almost like a project from another time, conjuring visions of modern-day workers’ encampments. There is a private acknowledgment of the scale of the challenge at senior levels within Government.
“It’s far larger than people really give it credit for,” said one source on Wednesday evening, adding that “MetroLink is like a marathon for State capacity that makes the Children’s Hospital look like a 5k”.
“Ten times anything else we have done,” said a senior Minister.
Delivering it will push the State – and a political culture still triggered by the Children’s Hospital and the Leinster House bike shed – to places it hasn’t been before.
The project will likely become a signifier over the next decade of how far Ireland has slipped on infrastructure - and whether it can catch up. Not to mention all the other marathons the State has to run at the same time, from tackling climate change, an ageing society, housing, digitalisation and disability services.
Paschal Donohoe, who was preoccupied with all these matters, is heading off. But these mountains still have to be climbed by those who remain, and who succeed them in power.
Best reads
The former Minister for Finance, who will resign as a TD tomorrow, sat down for his last ever interview with the Inside Politics podcast yesterday. Listen to the full interview here.
The political ghost of Liz Truss was summoned in Leinster House yesterday, writes Miriam Lord.
Meanwhile, Ivan Yates was dominating proceedings at the media committee yesterday evening.
The Taoiseach was put under pressure over the lack of facilities in inner city Dublin for those wanting to emulate sporting heroes from the area such as Troy Parrott and Kellie Harrington.
Here’s the runners and riders to replace Donohoe in Dublin Central.
Newton Emerson on how Labour leader Ivana Bacik’s “carelessness” will set unionist nerves jangling.
Denis Staunton describes how Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine has blindsided US allies in his latest Global Briefing newsletter.
Playbook
Patrick O’Donovan is up for Oral PQs before 9am in the Dáil, followed by Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. Leaders’ Questions is at midday, followed as usual by Other Members’ Questions and Questions on Policy or Legislation.
In the afternoon, Government time is given over to statements on haulage costs for SMEs shortly before 2pm, before Topical Issues and the second stage of a PBP-Solidarity bill seeking to provide minimum BER standards for rental accommodation. The Dáil wraps for the week at 7.22pm.
The full schedule is here.
The Seanad sits from 9.30am, with a motion on approval by the upper house of Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations before midday. It adjourns at lunchtime.
The full schedule is here.
In the committees, child poverty and deprivation will be the subject of a meeting of the children’s committee at 9.30am, while the education committee is hearing from officials on the hot school meals programme and defence forces veterans are in with the defence committee at the same time.
The Public Accounts Committee is delving into the affairs of the Peter McVerry trust, also at 9.30am. The Traveller issues committee is hearing about the Traveller employment programme at 12.30, while the committee on drug use hears from officials and researchers on preventing prevention in schools.
Here’s the full schedule.
Away from Leinster House, Helen McEntee is in Brussels attending her first meeting of EU foreign ministers. James Browne is launching a new Land Development Agency development at Barracksfield West.
There’s a protest at Leinster House by workers campaigning on family reunion rights. Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger is holding a press conference with survivors of gender violence to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women next Tuesday. Cop30 rumbles on in Brazil, with Minister for Climate Darragh O’Brien in attendance.
