{"id":544311,"date":"2026-07-11T10:43:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T10:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/544311\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T10:43:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T10:43:02","slug":"state-spends-e30-million-on-ranelagh-homes-to-speed-up-metrolink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/544311\/","title":{"rendered":"State spends \u20ac30 million on Ranelagh homes to speed up MetroLink"},"content":{"rendered":"

The State has already spent around \u20ac30 million on buying property in Ranelagh to speed up the delivery of the MetroLink.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall, \u20ac750 million has already been spent on the new rail line, which will link Ranelagh with North County Dublin, via the city centre and the airport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not a single track has been laid but the State has already spent millions purchasing property to facilitate construction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While some of it will be demolished, a number of homes in Ranelagh’s Dartmouth Square have been bought to speed up the State\u2019s largest infrastructure project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a legal challenge to it by some residents in Ranelagh<\/a> near the Charlemont stop of the line,\u201d Olivia Kelly of the Irish Times told The Claire Byrne Show<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, to effectively make that legal challenge go away, Transport Infrastructure Ireland decided that they would make them an offer to buy their houses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s Ranelagh; these are expensive properties, so altogether, that’s coming in at around \u20ac30 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Locals had raised concerns about the impact of congestion near their homes during construction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fearing that a High Court challenge could stretch on for years, Ms Kelly said that officials decided that purchasing the properties was the simplest way of \u201cmaking that go away\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Transport Infrastructure Ireland has bought a portion of the Hammerson site on O’Connell Street, which the organisation has \u201cwill make the construction of MetroLink easier\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The cost has not yet been confirmed but is understood to be in the tens of millions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know it was somewhere up to \u20ac80 million – this is a very big site,\u201d Ms Kelly said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cParts of this site in upper O’Connell Street have been derelict since the 1970s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would previously have been known as the Carlton site because it surrounds the former Carlton Cinema there on O’Connell Street, which is no longer there, but opposite the Savoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An An artist’s impression of the Tara Street MetroLink station. Image: metrolink.ie<\/p>\n

MetroLink is expected to cost the State between \u20ac7 and \u20ac12 billion, with planning for its construction now at an advanced stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have their preparation for their planning application, their legal fees, you know, engineering reports, work in preparation for the development of the line – which is considerable,\u201d Ms Kelly said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you would expect it to be to be racking up the millions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about this project as well, it’s been in progress for quite a number of years – so, those costs obviously have been accruing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials expect the MetroLink to carry its first passengers in the mid-2030s.<\/p>\n

Main image: Dartmouth Square. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov\/RollingNews.ie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State has already spent around \u20ac30 million on buying property in Ranelagh to speed up the delivery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-544311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}