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A NEW PROJECT director for the MetroLink, New Zealander Sean Sweeney, will be paid a salary of €550,000 to oversee the transport ‘megaproject’ in Dublin.
Sweeney has over three decades in leadership roles on major infrastructure projects in Australia, New Zealand and the US, the Department of Transport said in a statement announcing his appointment.
The Department of Transport said that there would only be a small group of professionals across the globe with the expertise needed to manage the construction of the MetroLink.
This is the reason given for the high salary of €550,000 the government offered for the role, which the department said is below the mean equivalent rate for Sweeney’s level of expertise globally.
Sweeney has Irish roots and referenced them in comments following his appointment.
“My late father was born and raised in Castlebar, Co Mayo. He would be thrilled and immensely proud, as I am, to know his son was going back to lead this major project for Dublin.”
He said MetroLink is “a once-in-a-generation project that will transform the public transport system in the capital city”.
“I am delighted and honoured to have been selected to spearhead its delivery.”
The Department said: “Sweeney is an expert in the procurement and delivery of large capital works and tunnelling. More recently, he was the Chief Executive Officer of City Rail Link, a transformative underground rail link in Auckland’s city centre and New Zealand’s largest-ever transport infrastructure project..”
Sweeney has also been the executive director for Major Projects Victoria in Australia, where he managed projects and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).
He later served as CEO for Justice Infrastructure in New South Wales. He holds a PhD in Construction Economics and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering.
Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan described the appointment as “another important step in ensuring that this time MetroLink will be delivered”.
“We now have one of the best people in the world on our team to get the job done.”
Transport Infrastructure Ireland CEO, Peter Walsh, said he was “very pleased” with the appointment, which he said followed “an extensive national and international recruitment competition”.
“In addition to his professional accomplishments, Sean is known for his collaborative and engaging leadership style.
“As our new MetroLink Project Director, Sean will be responsible for leading the development and delivery of this programme, which aims to provide a new high-frequency, environmentally friendly public transport service.
The MetroLink project has been beset by delays for years.
Last year, Minister Ryan said that it could have been built for a fraction of the expected budget in 2011 if it had not stalled.
The overall cost of the project is projected to be around €9.5 billion.
There have also been issues raised about the route of the line and where it should terminate.
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I don’t believe it, it looks like they might have gotten someone who knows what they’re doing!
@Padraig O’Brien: Wait till all the “not in my back garden” brigade get going and he’ll leave with nothing done
@Padraig O’Brien: you could get a civil servant to do it for a fraction.
@Padraig O’Brien: Luas was delivered under budget and ahead of schedule, personally it think whomever was running that and the companies that built it should STILL be working on rail projects today.
@Thesaltyurchin: wasn’t on schedule cos Mary o rourke stalled it for years but poking her big oinky snout in
Money very well spent.. hopefully the greens or the shinners won’t object to this, because they object to every building project, as every major city in the world has a train/tram transport system from their major airport. It’s actually shocking it’s taken this long to start this… Probably take about 15 years to build it…
@Blue Moon: RTFM.
@Blue Moon: are these shinners in the room with you now?
It always cracks me up when people blame a massive government failure on the opposition. This is obviously the fault of FF & FG, yet you genuinely believe it’s ‘the shinners’ to blame. Possibly because they would rather affordable housing be built on state land.
@Blue Moon: was it not a fg council candidate that had to step down after she took a 15000 backhanded to lift her planning objections ,and she wasn’t the first
journalism is dead, Nothing about comparisons between this salary and other similar roles worldwide. What was his previous salary as head of NZ public transport. What are the salaries for other Heads of similar projects worldwide?
Why cant journalists do actual journalism instead of just copy pasting an interviews
.
he said followed “an extensive national and international recruitment competition”.
The writer didnt seem to think it important to go into detail as to that search? Lazy lazy lazy. How was the search conducted?
I think this is a good appointment with a clickbait headline and nothing of substance in the article itself outside of an interview probably done by someone else.
@Hurrly 90: The type of journalism you are referring to is all behind paywalls these days. If you want it, pay for it. Simple really.
@Stephen Heffernan: So are you implying that despite the journal asking for donations they dont pay their ‘journalists’ to do any from of research outside of an interview?
@Hurrly 90: It says in article that the amount he is being paid is below that for individuals with his level of expertise worldwide.
@Hurrly 90: It’s clever-dumb tho, by leaving gaps in the information it leaves space for nonsense, which generates more revenue.
Please god now it will start i live in swords we are still usinga stage coach for transport the ghost buses are terrible and still no one still will be taken to task over it
@Alan Boyd: A tad dramatic, don’t you think? Swords has two buses serving the airport and 4 serving the city.
Let’s hope and pray that local governments and greedy opportunistic individuals don’t get in the way of a great and needed possibility.
These are the folks that cause Irish projects to fail, and cost over-runs.
@Seriously Really:
Partially agree, every country has opportunistic individuals but other countries seem to be able to sort it quickly.
That is down to the government and the legal profession.
How long will it take to finish the project?
It might be easier and cheaper to ask consultants from the Netherlands or Belgium to handle it, specifically those from TU Delft. They are likely to be more than happy to do it for free. The Dutch transportation system, with 45 years of expertise, serves as proof of their capability.
@sakk sa: Out of curiosity, where did the labour come from? Local or imported cheaply from their former colonies? Genuine question.
@sakk sa: do you often work as a project manager of a billion euro project for free?
Money very well spent… Hopefully the feckin green
Should see him to retirement, 600k a year, there’ll be no rush
@P. V. Aglue: ah he deserves that 700k a year, my only stipulation would be that 80% of it be paid retrospectively when key milestones and time lines are achieved.
@P. V. Aglue: Mad that today it’s not really an outrageous salary, we take 50% of it straight back too.
The US is the most expensive place in the world to do large infrastructure projects – and the most inefficient. This appointment doesn’t bode well.
Instead of hiring people and consultancies from the US and UK (with their poor track records of building anything), why not get in experts from Spain and Italy who do this stuff really well for a fraction of the price?
@Sean McGarr: New Zealand is not the US.
Metrolink to be renamed the moneypit
Get it done. When people can finally move around their city properly maybe you’ll look at the real problems around the commuter m50 and m roads.
Surely there’s some lad on a Tus scheme who would do it for an extra €50 a week?
The Metro will no doubt be another financial black hole and a trough of money for all the consulting and construction firms. I’m sure BAM is front and centre for more public funds. We should be spending the money developing transport infrastructure outside Dublin.
@Ciaran O’Mara. Who ever got a senior Civil Servants to do anything other than block things.
How much they paying anne graham. Get rid of her to fund some of this lads salary. AG is just an expensive figurehead
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