Passengers will be able to travel from Dublin City Centre to the airport in 19 minutes on the long-awaited Metro North, Independent.ie can exclusively reveal.

The Government’s €27bn Capital plan project will also see the DART expanded and major improvements to bus corridors in the Greater Dublin area.

Investment is schools, which previously was believed to be €3bn, will now be closer to €4bn, according to government sources.

The multi-year plan also includes a proposal to significant improve flood defence systems across the country, with €700m earmarked for the country months.

Tanaiste Joan Burton told Independent.ie that the new Metro link will be a combination of both underground and overground.

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“We will be basically doing Luas/metro all the way out of Swords via the airport and I think that will be a huge vote of confidence, we have also indicated going to relook at Tunnel,” she said.

“It will be underground in parts of city centre above round after Ballymun,” she added.

The Tanaiste hailed the major transport link to North Dublin and said it will be a great addition to the new cross-city Luas link which will be open in 2017.

“The biggest capital project in the city at the moment is the DIT campus at Grangegorman that Luas line goes within a hundred feet of it and then all the way to Swords via the airport.”

Ms Burton will be joined by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin and Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe to unveil the plan at Heuston Station this afternoon.

Labour TD for Fingal, Dublin, Brendan Ryan also welcomed the news and said: "“This is great news for Dublin Fingal which will also see work begin on the extension of the Dart to Balbriggan."

Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe today said the metro will be operational from 2026.

“The revised lower cost new Metro North will be a 16.5km light rail line connecting St Stephen’s Green to Swords, via Dublin Airport. It is expected that construction of the project would commence in 2021 with a view to delivery by 2026/27,” he said.

The Fine Gael politician added that €10bn will be allocated over the next six years to upgrade and maintain the public transport system.

Among the other transport measures include:

€6bn for roads

The completion of the Luas Cross City project in Dublin

Upgrading of bus corridors

Investment in the rail network

The Opposition have now moved to dismiss the Capital Plan as a 'phoney' and 'cynical' exercise.

Fianna Fail's Public Expenditure spokesman, Sean Fleming, said the plan was long on aspiration and short on detail, and required €15bn of private investment in order for it to be delivered.

"It is a wish list of what many people would like to see happen in the country. That private investment is essential to this plan, but the Government has no control over that private investment," Mr Fleming said.

"The real worry about today's plan is that this Government has shown a real inability to deliver on key Capital investment projects," he added."It is long on aspirations but short on ability to deliver."

"They are not only saying they won't see it delivered in this term of Government, but it won't even be delivered in the next Government," Mr Fleming said.

The party's Transport spokesman, Timmy Dooley, said the Luas link to the airport will not be of sufficient scale to meet the future population demands in North Dublin. He also criticised the fact that the new project will have to go through an entirely new planning process which he said could take years.

He also criticised the omission of the M20 Western Motorway project from the plan, saying it is a missed opportunity, which will only continue to shift of population from West to East.

Online Editors