The transport minister stated that the planning process was well along, and he was certain that the line will be constructed “quicker than people think.”

A completely segregated railway, the most of which would be underground, will run the length of MetroLink, an estimated €9.5 billion project, from north of Swords to Charlemont, south of Dublin's city centre.

Although more than €100 million has been spent on those planned lines, several Metro projects for the city have been suggested in previous decades but none have advanced to the development stage.

The current MetroLink proposal calls for 16 stations to service the city core, Dublin Airport, and residential areas including Swords, Ballymun, and Glasnevin.

Trains will run every three minutes during peak hours once operations begin.

When asked if delays in planning may stretch the completion date into the second part of the following decade, Mr. Ryan responded in the negative during his annual media conference.

“I don't think Metro will be delayed till the second half of the next ten years. I believe it will happen much sooner,” he answered.

“I was on the advisory council for the Public Transportation Office. I will never forget the engineers' statement that we should build the Metro first and not upgrade the M50 in the Platform To Change paper we prepared in 1999.

And how did we proceed? We did not build the Metro; instead, we modernised the M50. We'll start building it right now.

So much work has been completed, and the planning is really sophisticated.

An Bord Pleanala consists of records totalling 10,000 pages. This has been well examined, so I'm sure we can prepare for it and develop more quickly than most anticipate.”

According to Mr. Ryan, it's critical to preserve the planning system's independence.

He did, however, assert that the Dáil needed to consider the suggested revisions to the planning regulations that are included in a Government Bill.

“You must exercise caution so as not to discard the baby's bathwater.

“It is absolutely right to have an independent An Bord Pleanála, and for citizens to have all the legal rights under the Aarhus Convention and environmental law, to be able to question, check, and test things,” he said.

“I don't think the core issue with An Bord Pleanála is the problem; there have been operational issues as well as legitimate issues with the planning legislation from 2000 to the present.

They were subject to court scrutiny for everything since they had undergone so many amendments that they were contradicting one another.

Nobody was being benefited by it. The process was excessively costly, time-consuming, and involved lengthy legal cases on planning applications.

“That will be covered by the Planning Bill, which Minister of Housing Darragh O'Brien recently passed the Dáil's second stage.”

“From what I gather, it will move on to committee stage either on January 30th or February 1st. By Easter, I think it will be through the Oireachtas. We truly must have it set up.

The Minister said, “Early in the next decade,” when asked when he anticipated MetroLink would be operational.