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Dara Fitzpatrick, Mark Duffy, Ciaran Smith and Paul Orsmby died when their Irish Coast Guard helicopter crashed into Blackrock Island during a rescue mission. Irish Coastguard/PA

Timeline: The final mission of the crew of Rescue 116

The crew had been tasked with providing ‘top cover’ as the Sligo helicopter conducted a long-range mission.

ON 14 MARCH 2017, the four-person crew of the Rescue 116 helicopter went on its final mission.

More than four years after Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, Captain Mark Duffy, winchman Ciarán Smith and winch operator Paul Ormsby died in a fatal crash off the Mayo coast, an investigation report has found there were 12 contributory factors in the incident. 

The helicopter was tasked to provide ‘top cover’ to the Sligo rescue helicopter, which was on a long-range rescue mission. R116 crashed after it struck Blackrock Island on its way to refuel at Blacksod. 

A final Air Accident Investigations Unit (AAIU) report, published today, found that the probable cause of the crash was poor weather, the helicopter’s altitude and the crew being unaware of a 282ft obstacle on the flight path as it was not identified on the Flight Management System (FMS).

The 350-page report outlines in detail the events of the hours and minutes leading up to the crash. 

Call to a fishing vessel

9.40pm: The maritime rescue sub-centre (MRSC) at Malin Head in Donegal received a phone call from the captain of a fishing vessel stating that a crew member had sustained an injury. The captain reported that one of the crew had lost ‘the top half of their thumb’.

The captain was told that a helicopter was being alerted, that it would fly to Blacksod and go out from there to the vessel’s location, 140 miles west of Eagle Island, off the north-west Mayo coast.

The commander of the Sligo-based helicopter R118 was contacted and informed that ‘top cover’ would be arranged. In long-distance rescues for rescue helicopters, ‘top cover’ is provided by a second aircraft to ensure communications can be maintained between the rescue crew and the co-ordination centre on land.

9.53pm: The Malin centre called the Dublin co-ordination centre stating that R118 was going to do a long range medical evacuation and asking whether the Dublin helicopter (R116) would be available to provide top cover.

There was a conversation about what would be required and the Dublin centre questioned whether a CASA maritime patrol aircraft from the Irish Air Corps (IAC) could be requested. Malin said it did not know if there would be a CASA aircraft available.

10:02pm: Malin contacted the IAC duty officer to ask about the availability of a CASA. The duty officer called back to advise there was no maritime patrol aircraft available at that time, but that one could be offered at 8am the following morning. Malin MRSC declined the offer and said they would make alternative arrangements.

Malin contacted the Dublin co-ordination centre again to request top cover and discuss the nature of assistance required. There was some discussion around refuelling in Blacksod.

Mission accepted

10:10pm: MRCC Dublin called the Dublin duty pilot of R116 for top cover for R118’s tasking. The Commander for R116, Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, accepted the mission and asked MRCC Dublin to alert the other crew members by TETRA radio call.

10:35pm: After all of the helicopter crew arrived at the Dublin SAR base, they had a meeting in the operations room and just over ten minutes later all four were on board the helicopter.

Before departure Captain Fitzpatrick expressed doubts to MRCC Dublin about the weather at Blacksod and indicated that R116 would route to Sligo instead of the Co Mayo site.

11.06pm: The crews of R116 and R118 had been in regular communication and winch operator Paul Ormsby told Captain Fitzpatrick that R118 was just about to land at Blacksod.

“Oh great, thanks, you might just find out what the conditions are like there as well,” she replied.

He checked and advised her “conditions good at Blacksod”.

Captain Fitzpatrick compared options of going to Sligo or Blacksod in terms of flight time and fuel and asked for a number of books, before deciding they would go to Blacksod.

“We’re not under any pressure so happy enough with that and look if we don’t get in we’ve got plenty of fuel to’; the co-pilot Mark Duffy interjected ‘get us to Sligo’ and she continued ‘get back so I’m just going to give you a direct to em Blacksod now. You’ll get a left turn’.

11:36pm: Captain Fitzpatrick told the crew she was “just going to re-familiarise myself with Blacksod…south”. The report notes that it is likely she was looking at a route index as she indicated she was going to add the route to the helicopter’s automated system.

‘It’s been a while’

11:52pm: Captain Fitzpatrick remarked that she did not believe she had been in Blacksod “in about fifteen years”. Winchman Ciarán Smith replied it had “been a while for me too, alright”. Fitzpatrick asked her co-pilot whether he had been there recently, to which he replied “No, not recently”.

The report states the fact that there was no further conversation on the topic at that time suggested they did not consider that the lack of familiarity was a risk factor that required further discussion.

12:22am: The flight crew discussed staying at a safe altitude until they were clear of land before reducing altitude over what they believed was open water. 

12.24am: Winchman Ciarán Smith remarked that the high ground was “obviously in here somewhere”, to which Captain Fitzpatrick replied “Down here, this is our first point there, we go SDA, that’s kinda when we’re abeam Achill.”

The investigation report notes that Smith was the only member of the crew to raise the issue of high ground/terrain in relation to the automated route and that the flight crew seemed content that it did not warrant detailed consideration.

12.32am: The flight crew briefed for the arrival at the helipad at Blacksod. The investigation report noted that they did not appear to have considered Landing Site Directory obstacles.

Final moments

12:43am: The ‘before landing’ checklist was commenced. During this time co-pilot Mark Duffy stated: ‘starting to get ground coming in there at just over eight miles in the ten o’clock position’. 

Duffy advised that there were “small targets at six miles eleven o’clock, large out there to the right”.

An ‘ALTITUDE ALTITUDE’ warning sounded and Captain Fitzpatrick told the crew “There’s just a small little island that’s BLMO itself”.

Winchman Ciarán Smith alerted the pilots that he was “looking at an island just directly ahead of us now guys”.

“You want to come right,” he told Fitzpatrick.

She asked for confirmation and he replied “twenty degrees right, yeah”. 

Captain Fitzpatrick asked Duffy, the co-pilot, to select heading mode and he confirmed that was done.

Within one second of this acknowledgement, the report notes that winchman Ciarán Smith announced “come right now, come right, COME RIGHT”.

12:46am: The helicopter collided with terrain at the western end of Black Rock, departed from controlled flight, and impacted with the sea.

Several warning alerts could be heard on the recording as the last words – “we’re gone” – came from co-pilot Mark Duffy.

1.08am: Blacksod Lighthouse contacted MRSC Malin head as R116 had not arrived as expected at the helipad.

1.13am: MRSC Malin made a MAYDAY relay to all stations informing them that communucations had been lost with R116 and requested that any vessels with information contact them.

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15 Comments
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    Mute Paul Shepherd
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    Sep 21st 2021, 2:53 PM

    Are they sure it’s not 3034? After all, we have to allow for objections, cost over runs, missed deadlines, disputes and legal cases. 2034 seems a bit optimistic to me.

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    Mute Gerry from the Block
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    Sep 21st 2021, 2:55 PM

    @Paul Shepherd: Don’t forget the consultant fees. Please God will nobody think of the consultants fees?

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    Mute Cormac Mckay
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:16 PM

    @Gerry from the Block: €100 million spent already!

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    Mute The CFC Standard
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:05 PM

    Forget the MetroLink, build that white water rafting facility instead. Much better for Dublin City – who needs a direct link to the airport when you can just walk anyway? Better for the environment.

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    Mute Disco Inferno
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:32 PM

    @The CFC Standard: government aren’t building that, city Council want to

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    Mute john smith iv
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    Sep 22nd 2021, 7:46 AM

    @The CFC Standard: build both.

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    Mute Alex Marquis
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    Sep 21st 2021, 2:55 PM

    Typo here I’m afraid. Should read 2134.

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    Mute Sean Stevenson
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:31 PM

    Ah yes, Irish government projects. Expect this to be pushed further back, and its cost to be octupled by the date it was set to have been completed originally. Also expect the electorate to do nothing about it but moan online because they’re too afraid to vote for an alternative government.

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    Mute Adrian O'Donnell
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:54 PM

    Another major infrastructure project running well past due date and presumably well over budget? Who saw that one coming?

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    Mute Robert Clifford
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:32 PM

    Shambles

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    Mute Barry Teehan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:39 PM

    How difficult is it to run a train track to an airport Ffs.

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    Mute Shaner Mac
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    Sep 21st 2021, 6:54 PM

    @Barry Teehan: Er, extremely difficult…

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    Mute Barry Teehan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 8:29 PM

    @Shaner Mac: The Brits and the French managed to build a 24 mile tunnel under the sea in 6 years. Could they not just build simple overhead tracks ?

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    Mute Shaner Mac
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    Sep 21st 2021, 8:41 PM

    @Barry Teehan: Overhead tracks? Well no, there’s buildings, roads and, well, a city in the way. This is arguably more complicated as this has lots of stations. Politicians just need to grow a pair, ignore the naysayers and NIMBYs and get it done.

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    Mute Martin Sinnott
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:15 PM

    Just start digging, get the bore down and ready

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    Mute caelan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:23 PM

    @Martin Sinnott: or a Luas line to the airport, sorted

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    Mute Dan Morgan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:49 PM

    @caelan: wouldn’t have the capacity. Also, it’s about much more than the airport – it’s about linking swords to the city centre, via the airport, santry, ballymun, dcu & glasnevin.

    Think about how busy the existing luas lines are and neither of them have trip generators as big as swords of the airport.

    Also, even if it did have the capacity, we should be future proofing

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    Mute Longlin
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    Sep 21st 2021, 7:28 PM

    @caelan: Really think a long distance Luas line is a half measure. The Luas is fine for short trips crosslinking various parts of the city, but it is too slow for linking bigger outskirt towns like Swords to the city and also takes up valuable road space that could be used for bike and bus lanes as well as cars. I’ve been over in Tallaght at matches and when I looked it up it was quicker to get into town by Dublin bus than Luas. Hardly what we need to link the airport to town.

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    Mute Paul
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:40 PM

    Still waiting for the Bertie bowl

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    Mute Patrick O'malley
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    Sep 21st 2021, 5:32 PM

    Living opposite the M 50
    I cannot that no one ever thought of running a rail/ Luas type of system along side the motorway,with stations at where the train line runs underneath it at Clondalkin onto then Finglas then Ballymun with link to Airport from there.
    The planner’s in this country again missed out on a chance to build a modern and much needed multi link system
    The stops I mentioned could have lins to mainline rail into the city as well as serving the outskirts of this expanding City.

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    Mute John Diamond
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    Sep 21st 2021, 5:43 PM

    @Patrick O’malley: There was such a plan – it was called Metro West https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetroLink_(Dublin)#Metro_West

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    Mute Cormac Harrington
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    Sep 21st 2021, 5:33 PM

    Putting Ryan in as transport minister was always going to be a disaster. You think being leader of the Green Party he would be all for a metro. Not our Eamon, he would rather see the roads clogged with fumes from the buses and cars.

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    Mute Eddie O'Neill
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:17 PM

    We could do with clarity on a huge range of government issues, generally we get spin and outright lies, that’s how you keep the corruption under wraps.

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    Mute Susan O'flaherty
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:09 PM

    So they are putting in new upgrades but still not even starting the metro. Now wont be completed until 2034!!!!

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    Mute Raver
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:03 PM

    Just fecking build it

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    Mute Cormac Mckay
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:14 PM

    Metrolink is obsolete! It’s not good value for money! We can do better with developments and advancements in transport technology and the alternative could serve the whole city not just one single route/line http://www.thedublinloop.ie Don’t be surprised later this year when BusCONnects gets refused planning permission from An Bord Pleanála because of the poor quality of cycling infrastructure! We need to put the majority of all traffic underground!

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:22 PM

    @Cormac Mckay: I remember this Dublin loop and it makes sense

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    Mute Shaner Mac
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    Sep 21st 2021, 6:53 PM

    @Cormac Mckay: Why do you keep pedalling that nonsense?

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    Mute john smith iv
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    Sep 22nd 2021, 8:53 AM

    @Cormac Mckay: that link is very short of specifics, except full pedestrianisation

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    Mute Search Eagle
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    Sep 21st 2021, 9:03 PM

    They won’t have put down a single track in 2034 either. Nothing to do with COVID, or funds, or even local objections… Irish politicians are simply incapable of building public transport, instead choosing to let Irish Rail play with the legacy British Victorian railway they inherited. This is just the latest rotten batch who aren’t up to it. They proudly continue the legacy of wasted hundreds of millions of our money on consultants, PDFs, delay tactics, and waffle. Many of us knew that when Metro North was scrapped (by LEO VARADKAR) and came back to life as Metrolink, they weren’t serious about building it. Governments that are serious about infrastructure don’t scrap plans and keep re-designing it until the end of time. Time-wasters dither and plan. Doers, do.

    It is beyond absurd that in a few weeks time, when the peasants are treated to the reveal of the castrated, shredded National Development Plan, GREEN PARTY MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT EAMON MICHAEL RYAN will be presenting a climate strategy whose first move is to cancel all public transit investment for the next 20 years and divvy out the cash to some motorways. Carbon tax, congestion tax, mega high fuel taxes for the privilege of sitting in traffic.

    And the plans being scrapped aren’t even ambitious. We’re talking about a single, simple basic metro line and the electrification of some existing infrastructure. Basic infrastructure that should have been built in the 70′s when it was first announced. DART+ doesn’t come with the underground tunnel, nor does it even provide any stations. And even that’s beyond our capabilities to consider doing before 2034++.

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    Mute James
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    Sep 21st 2021, 11:01 PM

    @Search Eagle: surely the eu should just step in and run this country and put in the proper infrastructure across the country that it deserves.we have never been capable of governing ourselves here.

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    Mute Paul Cunningham
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    Sep 21st 2021, 5:15 PM

    Maybe they are basing it off Metro 2033 and Metro 2034, or playing the games to get an idea of what it will look like within a year of allowing the scobes and young lads in Canada Goose bomber jackets onto it.

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    Mute Anto H
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:27 PM

    This government is the BESTEST EVER!

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    Mute Ro-your-nan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 6:00 PM

    Ooooh good, about the same time as the next DART is due

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    Mute Tim Quigley
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    Sep 21st 2021, 8:13 PM

    Eamonn Ryan has. Green TD in Fingal. Seldom heard of and seems to have no interest in Metro.

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    Mute Hugh Mc Donnell
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    Sep 21st 2021, 5:13 PM

    Well at this rate it doesn’t bode well for the navan rail line with the announcement due soon

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    Mute john smith iv
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    Sep 22nd 2021, 8:49 AM

    The Chinese will build 5 new cities in the meantime with 40 new metros.

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    Mute Robert Byrne
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    Sep 21st 2021, 5:31 PM

    Why am I not surprised? Could it be the fact we have inept, self-serving politicians? Or… is it the bureaucratic process that is at fault? Maybe it is because no-one in charge has the ability to coordinate and plan?

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    Mute Genera L Consensus
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    Sep 21st 2021, 10:30 PM

    Add a few more Billion onto the invoices lads

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Sep 21st 2021, 11:15 PM

    i think Ireland missed a massive opportunity in the past year and a half to push ahead with so much of the admin and planning works for projects like Metro – i know we werent near being able to get actual construction yet – but all the bodies who were ‘working from home on full pay could easily have progressed with the planning of major projects like this – same with some essential works – i despair driving around Dublin these days looking the the number of cones and roadworks – the Germans designated roadworks and maintenance works essential and brought forward planned works to maximise the opportunity of having low or no traffic thru busy cities like Berlin – we of course didn’t bother use our brains at all and are now watching all city centre grind to a halt as backlog of construction and maintenance works get done …we are so annoying in ireland sometimes

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 8:13 PM

    There are not enough spurs off both green and red. This would be a start and would increase capacity. There is no reason for every tram to travel cross city. Why is the Shelbourne hotel stop not ever used for example

    1
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    Mute Thomas Smyth
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    Sep 22nd 2021, 1:15 AM

    How government plans, organises and tenders large projects needs a complete overhaul. There’s so much red tape. Some of it makes sense to avoid corruption. But the delays mean that it takes so long that the plans change drastically between governments. Whole stations have been built for this metro that will never be used. The other side is the tenders go to the lowest bidder, who then hammers the government on everything to inflate costs. Look at the Children’s Hospital. And unsuccessful bidders then bring frivolous lawsuits against the government causing further delays. Something you’d never see in the private sector. The government need to outsource the whole process to a third party that can get in the weeds. Maybe on a rolling contact. Like how the Luas is run.

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    Mute The Firestarter
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    Sep 21st 2021, 10:44 PM

    It’s been delayed since the 90s, so what’s another 7 years. Funny thing is the Irish built most of the UK and America, yet they’re incapable of doing it at home, says it all really about the way this country is run.

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    Mute Brian Haines
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    Sep 21st 2021, 9:27 PM

    Dublin airport and surrounding population centres would be better served with hydrogen cell powered buses using upgraded orbital road infrastructure that already exists. The global carbon footprint of another white elephant LUAS style project could be avoided, no CPOs, no army of consultants and lawyers.

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    Mute Search Eagle
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    Sep 21st 2021, 10:22 PM

    @Brian Haines: The Luas has been a massive success, though. Expensive, late, but ultimately a showcase of how people will use good quality transit when provided. Too successful for its own good. The Green Line before COVID was beginning to fall to pieces under the strain.

    There’s no avoiding CPOs, consultants and lawyers if we want to get meaningful infrastructure built, even for our bus systems or using electric vehicles. Bus Connects Dublin (and latterly Cork) represent the painful outlay required to reconfigure our cities, towns and villages for walking, cycling, and bus. Somehow through the painful public consultations and some rather daft initial proposals, a half-decent compromise has resulted. So expect that to hit the shredders soon too.

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