ALMOST €19m of taxpayers' money has been spent since 2002 on an integrated 'smartcard' ticketing system that will not be fully available to commuters in Dublin until next year at the earliest.

The project to allow commuters use the same ticket or smartcard for bus, rail, and Luas was launched in 2002 but still has not come into use.

Transport minister Noel Dempsey admitted the high cost of the project in response to a Dáil question from Fine Gael's Transport spokesman Fergus O'Dowd last week.

"Some €18.6m has been paid out by the exchequer on the integrated ticketing project since the inception of the project in 2002. This expenditure encompasses project management, design and development costs and operator contributions for the single smartcard," the minister said.

Dempsey said that the system was being introduced on a phased basis in the greater Dublin area.

A smartcard has been available on all Luas services for some time and it has been introduced in the form of annual and monthly tickets, and five-day rambler tickets by Dublin Bus.

The disposable smartcard is now being used by some 30% of Dublin Bus customers.

Dempsey continued: "Irish Rail will launch its interim smartcard for Dart and Dublin commuter services from late summer, initially with staff testing. It will then be rolled out to the public."

Dempsey pledged that by the end of 2010 the integrated ticket smartcard will be available to the majority of public transport passengers in the greater Dublin area.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, O'Dowd said: "The integrated ticketing project exemplifies this government's complete inability to properly plan and roll out key transport projects.

"These failures do real damage to Ireland's economic standing as our inefficient and unreliable transport network literally holds people back. It is likely that Bus Eireann won't have a full integrated ticketing system until 2012, making it a decade in planning and rolling out this system.

"How it has taken the government 10 years to roll this out is a mystery. It is obvious that the transport companies have been running rings around successive Fianna Fáil transport ministers."

In February 2008, Dempsey told the Dáil that €12.5m had been spent on the system since 2002.

The figure has risen by over €6m since then and this is compounded by the fact that the project had an original estimated cost of just €12m.