"Significant hurdles" in connection with testing of safety systems are preventing the setting of a date for the opening of the Dublin Port Tunnel, it has emerged.
Tunnel developers Dublin City Council and the National Roads Authority (NRA) both said they could no longer stand over assurances that the tunnel would open in November.
Spokespersons for both bodies said the best advice they had was that a date for the eventual opening may be announced in November, but they could not state definitively that the tunnel would open before Christmas.
They were commenting after Minister for Transport Martin Cullen declined to tell the Dáil whether he was satisfied with safety arrangements in the tunnel.
Mr Cullen was asked by Dublin North Central TD Finian McGrath if he was satisfied with safety issues in the light of concern about the number of fuel tankers travelling between the port and Dublin airport.
In a written reply, Mr Cullen replied that such issues were principally a matter for the local authority concerned, in this case the city council, and the National Roads Authority.
Mr McGrath said last night that it was "unacceptable that the Minister in charge of a €900 million project would reject responsibility for the project. That is some brass neck."
The NRA spokesman said that there were "significant hurdles" with safety testing which were preventing a definitive date being announced at this stage.
