Rail Network
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-30
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Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central

The Government has taken action. The Minister has been proactive and the Department has engaged. The payments under the contract are directly linked to the costs incurred by the contractor and are based on standard international engineering projects. The Deputy presents it as black and white. To be fair, it is not, and I respectfully challenge him. This is a complex matter and it takes time. It is going slower than we would like and we recognise that, but we must get it right and we must be prudent in the management of the project to be delivered. I take the point that it will make a great headline on the news tomorrow that we are running behind time and it is costing X amount, but the costs are incurred by the contractor. We are determined on the Government side, on behalf of all of us, to ensure that the project is delivered. It is taking longer to deliver, but it is still a flagship and it will still be this model that will ultimately deliver for all of us.
We have seen, if the Deputy looks at the depth of the questions on rail, that there is a growing use of rail. I assure the Deputy that there are no commercial agreements that will cost further, as of now, for the State. We will work with everyone to ensure that we deliver the matter on budget.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-30