Rail Network
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-18
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Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

I thank Deputy McAuliffe for tabling this important question. I am sure he will agree that Luas Finglas is an exciting project that has the potential to transform Finglas and the wider area around it. There are about 58,000 households in that area. The project will also provide benefits for those living far beyond the immediate community. The park-and-ride facility at St. Margaret's Road and the interchanges with heavy rail and bus at Broombridge, which Deputy McAuliffe and I visited, will allow anyone using those services to connect with the wider public transport network. This is a fantastic project. Importantly, the project will reduce journey times, get people out of cars, help with decarbonisation, provide a more efficient transport system and support the development of businesses and housing in the area.
As the Deputy will be aware, we have had a clean railway order in place since October 2025. Three judicial review applications were submitted. However, these have been successfully resolved. I commend TII and the parties involved on the work they did in this regard. This means that Luas Finglas now has, in effect, full planning permission. In November, my Department published its NDP in which it noted the construction of Luas Finglas.
The project team in TII is currently preparing for future phases of the project, including drafting and updating the detailed business case, the procurement strategy and the tender documents. TII is seeking to position the project to a ready-to-start stage, with the aim that the main design and build contract being tendered at the start of next year. I want to bring this forward at that point in order that we can look to accelerating it with a view to getting into construction in 2028.
This project will have immense benefits for Deputy McAuliffe's area. He has been a really strong advocate for it. If we look at the previous NDP, the project was sitting in the middle of the 2030s. TII is really excited about this project. It is 3.9 km of off-road development. We can bring it forward. The final documents are being prepared. We can get the project out to tender at the start of next year and then, hopefully, get into construction in 2028.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-18